Concepção materna sobre excesso de peso infantil e o estado nutricional de seus filhos

Abstract

SILVA, JPC. Maternal conception regarding overweight children and their nutritional status. [Doctorate Thesis]. Sao Paulo: Faculdade de Saude Publica da Universidade de Sao Paulo; 2013. Introduction: The prevalence of obesity has presented numbers each day higher in younger populations, including among young children from families with less favorable socioeconomic status. The determinants of this nutritional deviation that have been studied are diverse, ranging from genetics to environmental factors. Among the latter, the environmental surroundings of the young child, it is possible that the maternal conception, regarding overweight children, is the exogenous factor that contributes to increased risk of developing overweight or obesity in childhood. Objective: Analyze maternal conceptions regarding nutritional status to verify they are the same or if different, can they be factors that contribute to the presence of overweight or obesity in children under the age of four. Methods: This was an observational, exploratory, cross-sectional quantitative-qualitative study. Participants were mothers of children of preschool age, enrolled in public kindergartens in 2011. Mothers of two groups were interviewed: sixteen (16) mothers of overweight or obese children and fifteen (15) mothers of children classified as having normal weight, according to the cutoff points for BMI recommended by the Ministry of Health, Brazil-2008. Content Analysis was the technique utilized with the help of software “Classification Hierarchique Implicative et Cohesitive” to analyze data collected through semi-structured interviews. Results: Maternal conceptions, regarding overweight children and nutritional status of their children, present themselves differently among mothers of preschool overweight /obese children when compared with the conceptions of mothers of normal weight children. With respect to child nutrition, mothers of overweight children perceive that thin children are most likely malnourished. For mothers of normal weight children, reports stress the family influence and genetics as the main determinants of a child’s nutritional status. However, for both groups of mothers, the mother figure is perceived as having a key role in shaping the eating habits of children, but the mothers of overweight or obese children seem to not exercise this role when it comes to considering their children. Conclusion: Maternal conceptions about the nutritional status of children are heterogeneous, which includes ownership of them, and could contribute as one of the factors involved in the development of overweight and obesity of their children from pre-school ages on.