[Comparison of software programs for data analysis of complex surveys]. / Comparação de softwares para análise de dados de levantamentos complexos.

OBJECTIVE: To compare specific software programs for data analysis of complex surveys regarding the following characteristics: ease of application, computer efficiency and accuracy of the results. METHODS: Secondary data from the Pesquisa Nacional sobre Demografia e Saúde (National survey on demography and health) (1996) with a target population of women aged 15 to 49 years old were used. This was a probabilistic subsampling drawn in two stages, then stratified, with the probability proportional to size in the first stage. The northern and mid-western regions of the country were selected for the study. The parameters of interest were mean for the age variable, and the proportion for five other qualitative variables. The software programs used were Epi Info, Stata and WesVarPC. RESULTS: The programs have two common options for the files import: the dBASE and text type files. The number of steps previous to the execution of the analyses were twenty- one for Epi Info, eleven for Stata and nine for WesVarPC. Efficiency was high for all them, that is, less that three seconds. The standard errors estimated using Epi Info and Stata were the same, with approximation up to the third decimal; those for WesVarPC were generally higher. CONCLUSIONS: Epi Info is the most limited software program regarding the analyses currently performed; however it is easy to use and free. Stata and WesVarPC are far more complete, however the disadvantage is their cost. The choice of the software program will depend mainly on the user's specific needs.

Obesity and malnutrition in a Shantytown population in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

To investigate the prevalence of obesity and malnutrition in the poor Brazilian population we conducted a survey on the socioeconomic and nutritional status of 535 families (comprising 2,411 individuals) living in shantytowns in the city of São Paulo. There was a 30% prevalence of malnutrition in the children, with chronic malnutrition as the most predominant problem. The prevalence of obesity was 6.4% in boys and 8.7% in girls. Overweight and obesity associated with stunting was found in 5.8% of boys and 6.8% girls. Adolescents showed a higher prevalence of malnutrition when weight-for-age distribution was used (boys 46.4%, girls 40.2%), but a right deviation in the distribution was observed with an increase in obesity and a decrease of malnutrition was observed (obesity was 21% in girls and 8.8% in boys; malnutrition was 15.5% in boys and 12.6% in girls) when the weight-for-height adjustment was made. Stunting was the most predominant type of malnutrition in both sexes. Obesity associated with stunting was more common than obesity without stunting, both in younger children and adolescents. Adults had a higher prevalence of obesity than malnutrition according to both the Metropolitan Life Insurance tables (1.7% of undernutrition, 16.7% of overweight, and 14.1% of obesity) and Body Mass Index (8.5% of undernutrition, 21.9% of overweight, and 14.6% of obesity). There was an increase in the percentage of obese children when at least one adult in the family was obese and an increased percentage of malnourished children when undernourished adults were present in the family. Obesity among the adults of the family decreased the occurrence of malnutrition among the children.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)