Relación entre bullying y malnutrición en niños y adolescentes

Introduction: bullying occurs in approximately 246 million children and adolescents worldwide, in Ecuador 2 out of 10 minors are affected, it is associated with biopsychosocial factors, including malnutrition.Objective: to determine the prevalence of bullying in children and adolescents, their roles and their association with malnutrition.Methodology: it is a quantitative, analytical and cross-sectional study, carried out in the pediatric emergency room of the “José Carrasco Arteaga” Hospital during 2019; the sample consisted of 325 patients aged between 9 and 15 years, to whom the European Bullying Intervention Project Questionnaire (EBIPQ) test was applied to determine the presence of bullying. In addition, the Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated to determine the nutritional status of the participants. To establish the relationship with malnutrition, the Chi square test was used, and the Taub-Kendall test was used for correlation.Results: the prevalence of bullying was 41.8%, 50.7% for males and 49.3% for females; the 71.3% were adolescents, and 64% had an adequate nutritional status. No statistical association was found between bullying and malnutrition.Conclusions: the prevalence of bullying is similar in children and adolescents of both sexes, highlighting that their nutritional status was not altered, in addition, it does not constitute a condition to play the role of victim, aggressor or aggressor victim.