Maternal perception of children's nutritional status in the Federal District, Brazil

Abstract

Maternal perception of child's nutritional status has a potential impact on the identification, prevention, and treatment of childhood overweight. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of misperception and factors associated with maternal perception of the nutritional status of first- to third-grade elementary school students from private schools in the Federal District, Brazil. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 554 mother-child pairs. Children's nutritional status was assessed by measuring their weight and height. The mothers completed an online questionnaire about sociodemographic data, maternal nutritional status, maternal perception of her own nutritional status (silhouette scale for female adults), and maternal perception of child's nutritional status (silhouette scale for children). Only 30.0% of the mothers were successful in choosing the most appropriate silhouette to represent child's nutritional status. Highly educated mothers (Adjusted OR = 1.51) and mothers of male children (Adjusted OR = 2.53) or of non-overweight children (Adjusted OR = 1.65) were more likely to underestimate child's nutritional status. Conversely, mothers below 35 years of age (Adjusted OR = 1.85) and mothers of female children (Adjusted OR = 2.24) or of overweight children (Adjusted OR = 1.94) were more likely to overestimate child's nutritional status. There was a high prevalence of misperception, which shows the need for interventions for children that take into account the relevance of mother's role and the adequate recognition of child's nutritional status.

Inappropriate maternal perception of child’s weight status: a potential threat to nutrition

“…This finding is similar to studies in which they found that mothers tended to underestimate their sons weight status more than their daughters weight status. [19][20][21] In this study, both educated and uneducated mothers misclassified their children's weight status significantly (p=0.00001). Surprisingly, 91.3% of graduate or postgraduate mothers of middle SES perceived their child as NW status while actually only 39.1% were of NW and 52.1% of UW (p=0.00001); this could be due to the fact that most of them were working women, spending less time with their children.…”

“…Younger mothers were more likely to overestimate the nutritional status of their children compared with mothers older than 35 years of age. 21 Similarly, Mothers between 24-35 years of age had lower misperception of children's weight status than mothers < 24 years of age. 25 Conversely, Aparicio G, et al observed that mothers >40 years of age were more likely to misperceive children's weight status.…”

Does Love Really Make Mothers Blind? A Large Transcontinental Study on Mothers' Awareness About Their Children's Weight

“…Maynard et al , for instance, showed that 32% of mothers perceived their children with overweight as having normal weight. Furthermore, mothers were found to underestimate the size of their children with overweight and obesity in 39.3% and 25.3% of instances in Brazil , respectively, and in 80.4% of instances among children with overweight and obesity in Malaysia . This could be due to multiple factors, including different cutoffs used for BMI classification, different tools employed to evaluate parents' perception, or differences in children's ages.…”

Maternal dissatisfaction with their children's body size in private schools in the Federal District, Brazil

“…The present paper is part of a larger study that also evaluated maternal perception of children's nutritional status, as well as maternal attitudes, beliefs and practices related to children feeding. The first data on maternal perception of children's nutritional status has already been published [ 1 ]. The current analysis adds new understanding on the factors associated with maternal dissatisfaction with their schoolchildren’s body size.…”

“…Family is known to hold meaningful influence over their children’s eating habits, and mothers play an important role on educating and selecting foods for their offspring [ 1 – 6 ]. Therefore, the way mothers perceive their child's body and the presence of maternal dissatisfaction with their child's body may affect their attitudes and practices related to the child's dietary intake [ 1 , 4 , 7 – 9 ].…”