LAUSR

INTRODUCTION Studies show that childhood obesity is increasingly evident1-3, as sedentary lifestyle and malnutrition during childhood are becoming common4. Other studies5,6 point to physical activity as a protective factor against various chronic diseases (e.g., obesity) and human development facilitator for children. Malnutrition is a pathological condition caused by deficient or inadequate intake of calories and/or proteins7. This means that the overweight or obese child may also be malnourished, as this condition is related to the type of food consumed (e.g., the ultra-processed)8. Calories from ultra-processed foods are often “empty.” An individual who consumes a high amount of calories but lack macronutrients can contribute to malnutrition, a condition related to the absence of nutrients. Childhood malnutrition causes damage to the central nervous system (i.e., cerebellar cortex and hippocampus)9. There is a relationship between family influence and children’s good/bad habits10-12. In the nutritional context, some family members allow the children to choose the type of food (usually ultra-processed), time, and the amount ingested. In terms of physical activity, sedentary family members raise sedentary children. Some still believe that exercise is contraindicated for children. There are some attitudes that build bad habits in life10-12. Absence of instructions, on the part of family members and teachers, favors the development of bad habits and chronic diseases5,13. Another problem in this context is the lack of exercise. Increasingly, the opportunities, spaces, and time devoted to active play are being neglected in favor of school education (i.e., one in which the child spends the day at school sitting)4,14. In addition, contemporary violence and the reduction of public spaces for the practice of physical and leisure activities further restrict children, such as keeping them locked at home, leaving them with cell phones, and videogames (in the case of urban areas). In contrast, there is children residing in rural areas (e.g., quilombolas), which are less investigated15,16. A quilombola child lives far from the urban area (in places difficult to access)17. For this reason, studies on childhood malnutrition and obesity in quilombola children are lacking, and this prevents us from presenting the current scenario. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, there are still no descriptions that quilombola children fulfill the amount of exercise recommended by the World Health Organization, such as the need for moderate physical activity (e.g., walking, family outings, and recreational activities with movement) or vigorous (e.g., running and sports’ games) for at least 1 h daily, in order to add a total of 300 min of physical activity (exercise) at the end of the week18. In this context, family members and teachers are the drivers19 or inhibitors of the child development20. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Statute of Children’s and Adolescents (ECA), every child has the right to movement and right to play, and whether, in urban or rural areas, this should be encouraged4. Thus, the question arises: Are family members and teachers encouraging good habits to promote quality of life for quilombola children? This study aimed to determine whether studies with quilombola children evaluated the influence of family members and teachers on childhood malnutrition and obesity.