Disparities in Accuracy of Maternal Perceptions of Obesity among Hispanic Children

Maternal perceptions of their children's weight status may limit their readiness to foster healthy habits to prevent childhood obesity. We compared maternal perceptions as measured by verbal and visual scales of their children's weight status (CWS) with measured BMI/weight-for-age percenti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of health care for the poor and underserved 2017, Vol.28 (3), p.1208-1221
Main Authors: Mejia de Grubb, Maria C, Salemi, Jason L, Kihlberg, Courtney, Gonzalez, Sandra, Zoorob, Roger, Levine, Robert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Appraisals
Balances (scales)
Body Mass Index
Body weight
Body Weight - ethnology
Child
Child, Preschool
Childhood obesity
Children
Children & youth
Female
Habits
Health disparities
Health education
Health information
Health risks
Healthy habits
Hispanic Americans - psychology
Hispanic people
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Latin American cultural groups
Male
Mothers
Mothers - psychology
Obesity
Overweight - ethnology
Parents
Parents & parenting
Pediatric Obesity - ethnology
Perception
Perceptions
Socioeconomic Factors
United States - epidemiology
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Summary:Maternal perceptions of their children's weight status may limit their readiness to foster healthy habits to prevent childhood obesity. We compared maternal perceptions as measured by verbal and visual scales of their children's weight status (CWS) with measured BMI/weight-for-age percentile among 75 Hispanic mothers with at least one child aged ≤10 years. Mothers were significantly more likely to underestimate their CWS compared to measured BMI, particularly during verbal appraisals. Although maternal perceptions (verbal and visual scales) were significantly associated with measured CWS, the strength of the association was moderate (Verbal r=0.45 (95%CI:0.30, 0.57); Visual r=0.34 (95%CI:0.18, 0.48)). In no case, did parents in this study identify their children as "obese." These results underscore the need for more precise understandings about parental perceptions in order to develop better modes of communication regarding health risks of obesity and ways to modify and control unhealthy behaviors related to body weight.
ISSN:1049-2089
1548-6869
1548-6869
DOI:10.1353/hpu.2017.0106