Social and Health Care Research Center, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 16071 Cuenca, Spain.
Faculty of Nursing, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 02071 Albacete, Spain.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 11;18(8):4014. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18084014.
Childhood obesity has become a public health problem. Parents play an important role in the transmission of feeding habits and the detection of their child's weight status. The aim was to analyse the prevalence of overweight/obesity and to determine the relationship between children's weight status, different feeding practices and weight misperception. A cross-sectional study was conducted in randomly selected schools. The children's weight status was measured, and a questionnaire was used to identify the feeding practices applied by parents and their perception of their children's weight. The sample comprised 127 children aged 4 and 5 years and 189 aged 10 and 11. Differences were observed between parental feeding practices and weight status, monitoring being the most used practice. Parents use less pressure to eat and more restriction if their children have overweight or obesity. Misperception of weight was 39.6%, being higher in overweight children, who were perceived as normal weight in 53.19%. Children classified as obese were perceived as overweight in 88.23%. The use of inappropriate eating practices shows a need for health education in parents according to weight status. In addition, the parents' perception should be improved to increase early detection of overweight and start actions or seek professional help.
儿童肥胖已成为公共卫生问题。父母在喂养习惯的传递和孩子体重状况的察觉方面起着重要作用。本研究旨在分析超重/肥胖的流行情况，并确定儿童的体重状况、不同喂养行为与体重感知之间的关系。本研究采用横断面研究方法，在随机选取的学校中进行。测量了儿童的体重状况，并使用问卷调查了家长的喂养行为及其对孩子体重的感知。该样本包括 127 名 4 至 5 岁的儿童和 189 名 10 至 11 岁的儿童。研究观察到了父母喂养行为与体重状况之间的差异，监测是最常用的行为。如果孩子超重或肥胖，父母会减少压力式喂养，增加限制式喂养。体重感知错误率为 39.6%，超重儿童的错误感知率更高，其中 53.19%的超重儿童被认为是正常体重。88.23%的肥胖儿童被认为是超重。根据体重状况，不当的喂养行为表明需要对父母进行健康教育。此外，还应提高家长的感知能力，以增加对超重的早期发现，并采取行动或寻求专业帮助。
