Un enfoque de modelos mixtos de clases latentes para analizar la trayectoria nutricional y el desempeño escolar de niños y niñas

The aim is to analyze the nutritional trajectory of a cohort of Uruguayan boys and girls in school age and its association with school performance. With this purpose, Latent Class Mixed Models and Joint Latent Class Mixed Models were fitted. This methodology is framed in the structural models and allows an analysis of nutritional status change with age of the cohort. In addition, the models assume that it is not possible to capture heterogeneity among individuals by any observed variable and, therefore, this is represented by latent groups. The model identified three groups of boys and girls according to its nutritional trajectories during school. A group of girls have normal nutritional trajectory (50%) for age, another exceeds the overweight threshold for certain ages (40%) and last group haver overweight (10%) in school age. Besides, a group of boys have normal nutritional trajectory (70%) for age, another has overweight for certain ages (20%) and, finally, a minority group have obesity (10%). The group of overweight girls is characterized by greater weight and height at birth, however there are no differences in mother's educational attainment. Among boys the obesity group is heavier at birth but size at birth did not show significant differences. In addition, there is a higher proportion of mothers with superior educational attainment in the obese group of boys. Regarding the relationship between nutritional trajectory and school performance, results indicates that boys drop out at younger ages th1an girls. However, groups according to its nutritional trajectories do not differ in term of school dropout age. None of the groups exhibited a deficit or decrease in nutritional status during school period, although the group with overweight or obesity could be of concern and the object of future research.