Department of Pediatrics, Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27519-7225, USA.
Acad Pediatr. 2013 Jul-Aug;13(4):371-8. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2013.04.011.
Recent public health and media attention on child obesity may have altered accuracy of self-perception of obesity and associated weight control behaviors in children and adolescents. Thus, we examined whether accuracy of weight perceptions were associated with weight loss behaviors.
We examined children 8 to 15 years old in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005-2010) who reported themselves as "overweight/too fat," "about right," or "underweight/too thin." Children reported on efforts to lose weight and engagement in specific weight control behaviors, including how frequently he or she had been on a diet, starved, cut back on eating, skipped meals, or exercised to lose weight. We categorized obesity on the basis of measured body mass index, and we determined the accuracy of weight perceptions. We used chi-square tests to examine age- and sex-based differences in accuracy of perceptions and relationship to weight loss behaviors.
Girls and older children more accurately perceived weight status. Both girls and boys of all ages who perceived themselves as overweight were more likely to engage in weight loss behaviors. Children who were overweight engaged in more weight loss behaviors than healthy weight children perceiving themselves as overweight. Among children who reported themselves as "about right," overweight children engaged in more weight loss behaviors than healthy weight children but less so than those who accurately perceived themselves as being overweight.
The perception of being overweight and actual overweight status are both strongly associated with weight loss behaviors. These findings have important implications for counseling patients who may have inaccurate weight perceptions.
近期公众健康和媒体对儿童肥胖的关注可能改变了儿童和青少年对肥胖的自我认知的准确性，以及与体重控制行为相关的认知。因此，我们研究了体重感知的准确性是否与减肥行为有关。
我们调查了国家健康和营养调查（2005-2010 年）中 8 至 15 岁自我报告为“超重/太胖”、“差不多”或“体重不足/太瘦”的儿童。儿童报告了减肥努力和参与特定体重控制行为的情况，包括他或她多久节食一次、禁食、少吃、不吃正餐或锻炼减肥。我们根据测量的体重指数将肥胖分类，并确定体重感知的准确性。我们使用卡方检验来检查感知准确性在年龄和性别上的差异以及与减肥行为的关系。
女孩和年龄较大的儿童更准确地感知体重状况。所有年龄段的女孩和男孩，如果认为自己超重，更有可能采取减肥行为。超重的儿童比自我认知超重的健康体重儿童更倾向于进行减肥行为。在报告自己“体重正常”的儿童中，超重儿童比健康体重儿童更倾向于进行减肥行为，但不如自我认知超重的儿童那么多。
自我认知超重和实际超重状况都与减肥行为密切相关。这些发现对咨询可能存在不准确体重认知的患者具有重要意义。
