Abstract

LARA-GARCIA, Baldomero et al. Evaluation of the maternal perception of childhood overweight-obesity and maternal recognition of health risk in a Mexican border city. Salud pública Méx [online]. 2011, vol.53, n.3, pp.258-263. ISSN 0036-3634.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate 1) maternal perception (MP) of their child's weight, 2) MP of overweight-obesity (OW-OB) of unrelated children (URC),3) MP of image with health risk, and 4) recognition of OW-OB health risks. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 325 mother-child dyads participated.A panel with 7 images was used.The child's body mass index was the gold standard. RESULTS: A total of 84 of 100 mothers of OW-OB children did not accurately perceive their children's weight. Of the total sample, 97.5% perceived the OW-OB of URC and 83.1% the OW-OB image with health risk.Most of the mothers recognized the health risks. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to design multidisciplinary intervention programs to help mothers of OW-OB children accurately recognize their children's weight and, thus, reduce the high prevalence of OW-OB in our population.

Keywords : weight perception; child; preschool; health risk; obesity; overweight; Mexico.

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