Factors associated with parental recognition of a child's overweight status - a cross sectional study

Marja L Vanhala,Jaana H Laitinen,Kaisu M Kaikkonen,Sirkka M Keinänen-Kiukaanniemi,Raija I Korpelainen

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-11-665

Marja L Vanhala, Jaana H Laitinen + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-665

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Abstract

BackgroundVery few studies have evaluated the association between a child's lifestyle factors and their parent's ability to recognise the overweight status of their offspring. The aim of this study was to analyze the factors associated with a parent's ability to recognise their own offspring's overweight status.Methods125 overweight children out of all 1,278 school beginners in Northern Finland were enrolled.Weight and height were measured in health care clinics. Overweight status was defined by BMI according to internationally accepted criteria. A questionnaire to be filled in by parents was delivered by the school nurses. The parents were asked to evaluate their offspring's weight status. The child's eating habits and physical activity patterns were also enquired about. Factor groups of food and physical activity habits were formed by factor analysis. Binary logistic regression was performed using all variables associated with recognition of overweight status in univariate analyses. The significant risk factors in the final model are reported using odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs).ResultsFifty-seven percent (69/120) of the parents of the overweight children considered their child as normal weight. Child's BMI was positively associated with parental recognition of overweight (OR 3.59, CI 1.8 to 7.0). Overweight boys were less likely to be recognised than overweight girls (OR 0.14, CI 0.033 to 0.58). Child's healthy diet (OR 0.22, CI 0.091 to 0.54) and high physical activity (OR 0.29, CI 0.11 to 0.79) were inversely related to parental recognition of overweight status.ConclusionsChild's healthy eating habits and physical activity are inversely related to parental recognition of their offspring's overweight. These should be taken into account when planning prevention and treatment strategies for childhood obesity.

Highlights

Very few studies have evaluated the association between a child’s lifestyle factors and their parent’s ability to recognise the overweight status of their offspring
The aim of the current study is to evaluate the association between sosiodemographic and lifestyle factors and parents’ ability to recognise overweight status in their own seven year old children in Finland
17% (125/749) of the children were classified overweight or obese according to the international criteria, while 8% (58/728) of the children were classified as overweight and 0.3% obese (2/728) by the parents

Summary

Introduction

Very few studies have evaluated the association between a child’s lifestyle factors and their parent’s ability to recognise the overweight status of their offspring. The aim of this study was to analyze the factors associated with a parent’s ability to recognise their own offspring’s overweight status. Mothers have been more likely to identify their daughters as being overweight than their sons [9,10,11,12,13], but several studies have supported parental perception is not associated with the a child’s gender [3,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. Mothers with lower BMI have been suggested to report their child as overweight more often than mother’s with high BMI [9] but contradictory evidence exits [19]

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