Association between parents-children verbal communication time and the adiposity levels of chilean pre-schoolchildren

Abstract

To determine the association between the time of verbal communication parents-children with the adiposity levels of pre-schoolchildren, and secondly to describe the socio-demographic, and body composition outcomes of pre-schoolchildren by the verbal communication parents-children time. A descriptive, cross-sectional study of multi-centric application, with participation of (n=70) pre-scholars. The outcomes described were the adiposity, socio-demographic data of parents and the time of verbal communication parents-children. Considering a low (<100 min/day) versus a high (≥100 min/day) time of verbal communication parents-children, there were significant differences in the weight of the obesity classification "total communication/day" [TC] (TC<100 min/day 20.6±4 vs. TC≥100 min/day 18.4±3 kg, P=0.039), zweight/height (TC<100 min/day 1.791±8 vs. TC≥100 min/day 1.010±4, P=0.030), lean mass in kg (TC<100 min/day 7.5±3 vs. TC≥100 min/day 6.3±2 kg, P=0.046), body fat in % (TC<100 min/day 36.3±2 vs. TC≥100 min/day 33.9±3%, P<0.05). The height and ratio weight/height do not showed significant association with the time of verbal communication parents-children. Additionally, muscle mass (TC<100 min/day 5.7±3 vs. TC≥100 min/day 5.1±3 kg, P=0.047), and trunk lean mass (TC<100 min/day 5.2± 4 vs. 4.6±3 kg, P=0.039) were significantly associated with the main outcome. The daily time of verbal communication parents-children is significantly associated with higher levels of adiposity by the weight, zweight/height, and body fat in pre-schoolchildren. These findings require major and more complex research for corroborating.