Department of Human Development, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Puerto Rico, Medical Science Campus, San Juan, PR 00936-5067, Puerto Rico.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2012 Apr;9(4):1427-37. doi: 10.3390/ijerph9041427. Epub 2012 Apr 16.
Public concern about childhood obesity and associated health problems calls for the identification of modifiable factors that could halt this epidemic. Parental perceptions of their children's weight status could be associated to how parents influence children's eating patterns. We aimed to identify the perceptions Puerto Rican parents have of their children's weight and children's own perceptions of weight status as compared to real weight. A cross sectional survey was performed in a representative sample of 1st-6th grade students. Only half of the children correctly identified their weight, and only 62.4% of the parents correctly classified their children's weight. Most obese/overweight children did not perceive themselves as such. Almost half of obese/overweight children were identified by the parents as normal weight while over half of the underweight children were perceived by their parents at normal weight. More girls than boys perceived themselves as obese/overweight and more parents of girls than of boys perceived them as such. Higher-educated parents were better at recognizing overweight/obesity among their children compared to less-educated parents. This study suggests an influence of parents' SES characteristics on their perceptions of children's weight status as well as on children's own perceptions of their weight status.
公众对儿童肥胖及其相关健康问题的关注促使我们寻找可以阻止这一流行趋势的可改变因素。父母对子女体重状况的看法可能与父母对子女饮食习惯的影响有关。本研究旨在比较波多黎各父母对子女体重的看法与子女对自身体重的看法，以及子女实际体重，从而确定父母对子女体重的看法。在一至六年级学生的代表性样本中进行了横断面调查。只有一半的儿童能够正确识别自己的体重，只有 62.4%的父母能够正确判断孩子的体重。大多数肥胖/超重的儿童并不认为自己肥胖。近一半的肥胖/超重儿童被父母认为体重正常，而超过一半的体重不足的儿童被父母认为体重正常。与男孩相比，更多的女孩认为自己肥胖/超重，更多女孩的父母认为她们超重，而男孩的父母则较少这样认为。与受教育程度较低的父母相比，受教育程度较高的父母更善于识别子女超重/肥胖。这项研究表明，父母的社会经济地位特征对他们对子女体重状况的看法以及子女对自身体重状况的看法都有影响。
