Obese children are thin in parents’ eyes: A psychologically, socially, or culturally driven bias?

Hochdorn, Alexander; Faleiros, Vicente P.; Camargo, Brígido Vizeu; Bousfield, Andréa Bs; Wachelke, João; Quintão, Ingrid P; Azzolina, Danila; Gregori, Darío

doi:10.1177/1359105316676328

Cited by 19 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 47 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A high percentage of mothers underestimated the nutritional status of their overweight children (39,3%), a trend that has been previously observed among parents of this population [8,7,12,13,14,31,32]. However, contrary to previous findings, 29.9% of mothers of overweight children and 47.9% of those of obese children overestimated the nutritional status of their child.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 84%

“…Hochdorn et al [14] verified in a systematic review that this occurs globally, and that most of the studies carried out in Latin America, East Asia and Europe noted underestimation of the nutritional status of overweight and obese children. Furthermore, many mothers believe that childhood overweight is a sign of good health and that overweight will be resolved later as the child grows [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 84%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Hochdorn et al, 41 who reviewed 37 papers that focused on research conducted in different geopolitical contexts, similarly concluded that adequate educational support for promoting parents' awareness and their realistic recognition of their children's weight should be implemented in all healthcare policies addressing childhood obesity. Duarte et al, 21 further suggested attendance at well-child visits may be an effective way to decrease inaccuracies in maternal child weight judgments, and again reinforced the importance of incorporating the influence of salient health professionals from the earliest point in time in childhood obesity prevention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unfortunately, research continues to show parents commonly underestimate the weight status of overweight or obese children, regardless of country of origin, as outlined by Regber et al, 41 in a study of eight countries in Europe 44 and Musaad et al, 45 in an American based study where 93% of youth were not correctly perceived as overweight or obese by the parent. Another issue is that accurate parental perceptions of child weight may counter intuitively contribute to obesity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Childhood Obesity and Parental Weight Perceptions: An Update

Marks¹

2017

AOWMC

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent data continue to reveal the persistence of high rates of childhood obesity in many regions of the world. This brief describes the most recent research on this topicfrom the perspective of the role played by parental weight perceptions, a variable that has been linked to the persistence of and apparent burgeoning of childhood obesity/ overweight prevalence rates, regardless of country of origin. To update the literature on this topic, English language peer-reviewed publications from 2016-2017 on the topics of overweight, obesity and parental health literacy were specifically reviewed. Findings from the available studies reveal many inaccurate parental perceptions have been observed among children at risk for childhood obesity, an ongoing widespread health concern. This epidemic also appears to be influenced by the accuracy of the perceptions of parents regarding their child's weight status. It is concluded that strategies to help parents detect and intervene upon any prevailing overweight risk for this oftentimes irreversible health condition are strongly indicated.

show abstract

“…These observations are not new and have long been presumed to be a concern; if people do not realise they are overweight, how will they change their behaviour to lose weight? For example, the failure of parents to identify their children as overweight has recently been described as 'promoting the silent rise' of obesity, 1 and new research reported in the International Journal of Obesity suggests that healthcare professionals not notifying children and their families of their 'unhealthy weight status' is a missed opportunity to combat obesity. 2 These sentiments are echoed in public health intervention approaches.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%