Introduction:

The problem of the high rate of malnutrition worldwide is related to common causal factors related to maternal education, along with socioeconomic status, they could influence the nutrition of children, especially those who are in preschool.

Objective:

To evaluate maternal education and socioeconomic status as the nutritional status of preschool children.

Materials and Methods:

An analytical observational cross-sectional study was conducted. 82 children were evaluated by anthropometry, according to WHO criteria and surveys were applied to their respective mothers.

Results:

According to the indicator Weight/Height, 57.31% of preschool children presented adequate nutritional status (between -1 y+1 SD), 29.3% overweight (between +1 y+2 SD) and 7.31% obesity (above +2SD). Moreover, 6.1% presented risk of malnutrition (between -1 DE y -2 SD). For the indicator Height/Age, 87.8% had adequate size (above - 1 SD), 11% risk of low height (between -1 DE y -2 SD) and 1.22% presented low height (under -2 SD). When comparing the medians of the years of maternal schooling according to the nutritional status of (18, 15, 14 and 13.5), no significant differences between groups were found (p=0.247 Kruskal Wallis) and comparing medians of the socioeconomic stratification scores according to the nutritional status of preschool children (7, 15 and 10.5), significant differences between groups were found (p=0.023 Kruskal Wallis).

Conclusions:

More than half of preschool children presented adequate nutritional status and adequate height. No differences between maternal schooling were found according to the nutritional status of preschoolers but it did among economic stratification scores.

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