Parents’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Childhood Obesity in Singapore

Abstract

The obesity pandemic is increasingly threatening Asian populations. This is especially so for children from higher-income countries, such as Singapore. Among the various driving factors of obesity, parents’ health knowledge, attitudes, and practices are underexplored. The present study uses a nationally representative sample of 1,491 responses from Singapore to investigate parental knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) about childhood obesity. Latent class analysis (LCA) on parents’ responses to the KAP survey reveals four unique parenting patterns: the limited knowledge group, the group with negative attitudes, the best practice group, and the limited practice group. Children of families in the best practice group are shown to have the lowest obesity risk. Furthermore, statistically significant variations in parental subgroups are found across several socio-economic factors. For example, parents with positive responses to all KAP variables tend to be younger, have a higher household income, do not work full-time, and live in a separate household from the children’s grandparents. The findings may provide important policy implications for targeted preventative interventions for parents whose children may face higher obesity risks.