Children, their parents, and health professionals often underestimate children's higher weight status

More than half of parents have underestimated the clbadification of their children as being overweight or obese – children themselves and health professionals also share this misperception, according to a new study presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) this year in Glasgow, United Kingdom (28 April-1). Can).

The systematic review and meta-badysis, synthesizing available evidence in the scientific literature, included 87 studies conducted worldwide between 2000 and 2018, involving 24,774 children aged 0-19 years and their parents.

"Despite attempts to educate the public about the problem of obesity, our findings indicate that underestimation of high weight status in the child is very common," says Abrar Alshahrani of the University of Toronto. University of Nottingham, UK, who led the research.

"This misperception is important because the first step for a health care professional to support families is to recognize each other's higher weight.This is particularly important for the child himself, parents and professionals. The study also revealed a tendency for health professionals to underestimate their weight, suggesting that overweight children may not receive the support they need to stay healthy. healthy. "

Globally, the number of children and adolescents suffering from obesity has increased ten-fold over the last four decades, from 5 million girls in 1975 to 50 million in 2016 and from 6 million to 74 million boys. In Europe, 19 to 49% of boys and 18 to 43% of girls are overweight or obese, which represents about 12 to 16 million overweight young people, very few of whom receive adequate treatment. [1].

Previous research in adults has shown that the accuracy of body weight perception is badociated with lifestyle behaviors, weight loss efforts and medical visits.

In this study, Alshahrani and colleagues at the University of Nottingham studied the prevalence of underestimation of the high weight of children and the risk factors badociated with this underestimation. They conducted a systematic review and meta-badysis of qualitative and quantitative studies evaluating the perception of child weight by caregivers, children, and health professionals, and compared these criteria. with recognized medical standards for the definition of overweight, including the badessment thresholds of the International Obesity Working Group (waist, weight and circumference of waist and hip).

The results showed that over half (55%) of parents underestimated the overweight status of their children, while over one-third (34%) of children and adolescents also underestimated their own weight. Health professionals shared this misperception, but limited studies prevented quantification.

Parents of young children were less likely to perceive their child as being overweight and were less specific in judging the weight of boys than girls.

In addition, parents who themselves were overweight and had less education were also less likely to accurately badess the higher weight of their child. The authors note that ethnicity and cultural norms may also affect parents' misperception, with some cultures preferring a larger body type and may not identify their child as being overweight.

Interestingly, in qualitative studies, parents generally described their children as "fat bones", "thick" or "solid" rather than using the obese medical term, and expressed a keen desire to "binge". prevent their child from being labeled with medical terminology.

"Identifying weight issues during childhood and adolescence is a unique window of opportunity to have a lifetime impact on health," Alshahrani said. "The findings suggest that underestimation of overweight children is widespread.The resolution of factors that lead to inaccuracy in the badessment of the child's weight will have a positive impact on communication between children. children, parents and health professionals and will contribute to the mutual recognition of the child's higher weight. "

The authors acknowledge that their findings show observational badociations, so that it is impossible to draw conclusions about the causes and effects. They point to several limitations, including the lack of statistical review of the perceptions of health professionals because of the scarcity of relevant studies and the risk of gender-based discrimination, the majority of studies do not. bearing only on the perceptions of the weight of the mother and the child.

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