Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, 1300 South 2nd St, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454, USA.
Prev Chronic Dis. 2012;9:E56. Epub 2012 Feb 16.
Obesity is highly prevalent among American Indians, and effective prevention efforts require caregiver involvement. We examined American Indian (AI) parents' assessment of and level of concern about their kindergarten child's weight status.
We collected baseline data (fall of 2005 and fall of 2006) on children and their parents or caregivers for a school-based obesity prevention trial (Bright Start) on an AI reservation in South Dakota. The current study uses 413 parent-child pairs. Age- and sex-adjusted body mass index percentiles were categorized as very underweight (<5th percentile), slightly underweight (5th to <15th percentile), normal weight (15th to <85th percentile), overweight (85th to <95th percentile), and obese (≥ 95th percentile). Parents or caregivers reported their assessment of and concerns about their child's weight status as well as sociodemographic characteristics. We used mixed-model multivariable analysis to examine associations between sociodemographic characteristics and the probability of parents underclassifying or overclassifying their child's weight status; analyses were adjusted for school as a random effect.
Children were evenly divided by sex and had a mean age of 5.8 years. Twenty-nine percent of children and 86% of parents were overweight or obese. Approximately 33% (n = 138) of parents underclassified and 7% (n = 29) of parents overclassified their child's weight status. Higher parental weight status and higher concern about their child's weight status increased the probability of underclassification (P for trend = .02 for both).
In this sample of at-risk children, one-third of parents underclassified their child's weight status. Childhood obesity prevention programs need to increase awareness and recognition of childhood obesity and address parental weight issues.
肥胖症在美国印第安人中非常普遍，有效的预防措施需要照顾者的参与。我们评估了美国印第安（AI）父母对其幼儿园儿童体重状况的评估和关注程度。
我们为南达科他州 AI 保留地的一项基于学校的肥胖预防试验（Bright Start）收集了儿童及其父母或照顾者的基线数据（2005 年秋季和 2006 年秋季）。目前的研究使用了 413 对父母-子女对。按年龄和性别调整的体重指数百分位数分为消瘦（<第 5 百分位）、轻度消瘦（第 5 至<第 15 百分位）、正常体重（第 15 至<第 85 百分位）、超重（第 85 至<第 95 百分位）和肥胖（≥第 95 百分位）。父母或照顾者报告了他们对孩子体重状况的评估和关注，以及社会人口统计学特征。我们使用混合模型多变量分析来研究社会人口统计学特征与父母低估或高估孩子体重状况的概率之间的关系；分析调整了学校作为随机效应。
儿童按性别平均分配，平均年龄为 5.8 岁。29%的儿童和 86%的父母超重或肥胖。大约 33%（n = 138）的父母低估了孩子的体重状况，而 7%（n = 29）的父母高估了孩子的体重状况。父母较高的体重状况和对孩子体重状况的较高关注增加了低估的可能性（趋势 P 值均为.02）。
在这个有风险的儿童样本中，三分之一的父母低估了孩子的体重状况。儿童肥胖预防计划需要提高对儿童肥胖的认识和识别，并解决父母的体重问题。
