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Low Awareness of Overweight Status Among Parents of Preschool-Aged Children, Minnesota, 2004-2005

INTRODUCTION: Many studies have found that parents of overweight children do not perceive their child to be overweight. Little is known, however, about the extent to which such misperceptions exist among parents of preschool-aged children. METHODS: We analyzed data that were collected in 2004-2005 f...

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Autores principales: Harnack, Lisa, Lytle, Leslie, Himes, John H., Story, Mary, Taylor, Gretchen, Bishop, Don
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2009
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2687853/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19288990
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author Harnack, Lisa
Lytle, Leslie
Himes, John H.
Story, Mary
Taylor, Gretchen
Bishop, Don
author_facet Harnack, Lisa
Lytle, Leslie
Himes, John H.
Story, Mary
Taylor, Gretchen
Bishop, Don
author_sort Harnack, Lisa
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Many studies have found that parents of overweight children do not perceive their child to be overweight. Little is known, however, about the extent to which such misperceptions exist among parents of preschool-aged children. METHODS: We analyzed data that were collected in 2004-2005 from parents of 593 preschool-aged children in 20 child care centers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, metropolitan area. Parents were asked how they would classify their preschooler's weight, and children's height and weight were measured. RESULTS: Of the predominantly white, educated sample, most parents (90.7%) of overweight preschoolers classified their child as normal weight. An even higher percentage (94.7%) of children at risk for overweight were classified as normal weight by their parents. Most parents of normal-weight children classified their child's weight as average. However, 16.0% classified their normal-weight child as underweight or very underweight. CONCLUSION: Results indicate that parents are unlikely to recognize childhood overweight among preschool-aged children, which is concerning because parents of overweight children may be unlikely to engage in obesity prevention efforts for their child if they do not recognize their child's risk status. A notable proportion of parents of normal-weight children perceived their child to be underweight, which suggests that parents of normal-weight children may be more concerned with undernutrition than overnutrition.
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spelling pubmed-26878532009-06-29 Low Awareness of Overweight Status Among Parents of Preschool-Aged Children, Minnesota, 2004-2005 Harnack, Lisa Lytle, Leslie Himes, John H. Story, Mary Taylor, Gretchen Bishop, Don Prev Chronic Dis Original Research INTRODUCTION: Many studies have found that parents of overweight children do not perceive their child to be overweight. Little is known, however, about the extent to which such misperceptions exist among parents of preschool-aged children. METHODS: We analyzed data that were collected in 2004-2005 from parents of 593 preschool-aged children in 20 child care centers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, metropolitan area. Parents were asked how they would classify their preschooler's weight, and children's height and weight were measured. RESULTS: Of the predominantly white, educated sample, most parents (90.7%) of overweight preschoolers classified their child as normal weight. An even higher percentage (94.7%) of children at risk for overweight were classified as normal weight by their parents. Most parents of normal-weight children classified their child's weight as average. However, 16.0% classified their normal-weight child as underweight or very underweight. CONCLUSION: Results indicate that parents are unlikely to recognize childhood overweight among preschool-aged children, which is concerning because parents of overweight children may be unlikely to engage in obesity prevention efforts for their child if they do not recognize their child's risk status. A notable proportion of parents of normal-weight children perceived their child to be underweight, which suggests that parents of normal-weight children may be more concerned with undernutrition than overnutrition. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2009-03-15 /pmc/articles/PMC2687853/ /pubmed/19288990 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is a publication of the U.S. Government. This publication is in the public domain and is therefore without copyright. All text from this work may be reprinted freely. Use of these materials should be properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Harnack, Lisa
Lytle, Leslie
Himes, John H.
Story, Mary
Taylor, Gretchen
Bishop, Don
Low Awareness of Overweight Status Among Parents of Preschool-Aged Children, Minnesota, 2004-2005
title Low Awareness of Overweight Status Among Parents of Preschool-Aged Children, Minnesota, 2004-2005
title_full Low Awareness of Overweight Status Among Parents of Preschool-Aged Children, Minnesota, 2004-2005
title_fullStr Low Awareness of Overweight Status Among Parents of Preschool-Aged Children, Minnesota, 2004-2005
title_full_unstemmed Low Awareness of Overweight Status Among Parents of Preschool-Aged Children, Minnesota, 2004-2005
title_short Low Awareness of Overweight Status Among Parents of Preschool-Aged Children, Minnesota, 2004-2005
title_sort low awareness of overweight status among parents of preschool-aged children, minnesota, 2004-2005
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2687853/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19288990
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