Each roach is beautiful to his mother. And if the cheeks are round and the belly nice full-bodied, even better. At least so for the Del Paesene mothers, who seem to be not noticing the ideal weight of their children.
A real maternal misperception: the proportion of overweight / obese children not correctly perceived as such by their mothers is very high. Almost all children are overweight (89%). Therefore, most mothers would not notice their baby's excessive weight. Delaying possible interventions to get back in shape.
This is what emerges from a study conducted by a team of Paduan researchers led by prof. Dario Gregori of the Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health Unit of the Department of Cardiological, Thoracic and Vascular Sciences of the University of Padua and published in the international journal Obesity: Does love really make mothers blind? A large
transcontinental study on mothers’ awareness about their children’s weight, editor’s choice.
Professor Gregori's study was aimed at di study the maternal misperception rate (understood as the perception of an overweight / obese child as underweight / normal weight) and its role in influencing the choice to take actions aimed at weight loss.
The study enrolled 2720 children (aged 3 to 11,
gender-balanced) in 10 countries around the world (Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, France, the country, the United Kingdom, Georgia, and India).
Of these, 774 children were found to be overweight / obese. The largest proportion of overweight / obese children was identified in India (49% (377)) and Latin America (16% (124) in Brazil, 7% (54) in Chile, 6% (45) in Argentina, 6% (47) in Mexico). In Del Paese, in line with other European nations, a smaller proportion of overweight / obese children was identified (30 out of 774, equal to 4% of the total overweight / obese children).
"The proportion of overweight / obese children not correctly perceived as such by their mothers is very high (almost all overweight children (89%) - explains Prof Gregori -, and half of the obese children (52%) were not perceived as such by their mothers).
How perception changes depending on the country
The stratified analysis by country shows a slight variability between the countries considered in the study (the proportion of overweight / obese children not correctly perceived varies from 50% in Chile to 89% in France). The Del Paese represents one of the countries with the highest proportion of misperception, that is, 80% of overweight / obese children - equal to 24 out of 30 overweight / obese children - were perceived by their mothers as normal weight. "
The children were subjected to an anthropometric assessment while the mothers were asked to indicate the figure that best represented the physical form of their child among 14 figures (7 male and 7 female) designed in such a way as to represent as many children with different physical forms (from extreme thinness to obesity).
Mispercpetion was found to be a factor influencing the choice to take action to lose weight (overweight / obese children who were not correctly perceived as such by their mothers were found to be less likely to be involved in a weight loss program. weight).
We need a greater awareness on the part of parents
These results underline the need for public health policies aimed at combating the problem of childhood obesity must first and foremost encourage parents to become aware of the physical fitness of their child given that this factor has been shown to influence the choice of make an effort to lose weight.
TAG:
- childhood obesity
- university of padua
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- 6-14 children years
