Singaporean Mothers’ Perception of Their Three-year-old Child’s Weight Status: A Cross-Sectional Study

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Inaccurate parental perception of their child's weight status is commonly reported in Western countries. It is unclear whether similar misperception exists in Asian populations. This study aimed to evaluate the ability of Singaporean mothers to accurately describe their three-year-old child's weight status verbally and visually. METHODS: At three years post-delivery, weight and height of the children were measured. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated and converted into actual weight status using International Obesity Task Force criteria. The mothers were blinded to their child's measurements and asked to verbally and visually describe what they perceived was their child's actual weight status. Agreement between actual and described weight status was assessed using Cohen's Kappa statistic (κ). RESULTS: Of 1237 recruited participants, 66.4% (n = 821) with complete data on mothers' verbal and visual perceptions and children's anthropometric measurements were analysed. Nearly thirty percent of the mothers were unable to describe their child's weight status accurately. In verbal description, 17.9% under-estimated and 11.8% over-estimated their child's weight status. In visual description, 10.4% under-estimated and 19.6% over-estimated their child's weight status. Many mothers of underweight children over-estimated (verbal 51.6%; visual 88.8%), and many mothers of overweight and obese children under-estimated (verbal 82.6%; visual 73.9%), their child's weight status. In contrast, significantly fewer mothers of normal-weight children were inaccurate (verbal 16.8%; visual 8.8%). Birth order (p<0.001), maternal (p = 0.004) and child's weight status (p<0.001) were associated with consistently inaccurate verbal and visual descriptions. CONCLUSIONS: Singaporean mothers, especially those of underweight and overweight children, may not be able to perceive their young child's weight status accurately. To facilitate prevention of childhood obesity, educating parents and caregivers about their child's weight status is needed.

Source: PLoS ONE

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147563

Authors: Tuck Seng Cheng, See Ling Loy, Yin Bun Cheung, Jerry Kok Yen Chan, Mya Thway Tint, Keith M. Godfrey, Peter D. Gluckman, Kenneth Kwek, Seang Mei Saw, Yap-Seng Chong, Yung Seng Lee, Fabian Yap, Ngee Lek, Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) study group

Institutions: KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Tampere University, Duke-NUS Medical School, University of Tampere, National University of Singapore, National University Health System, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, University of Auckland, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,382

Funders: Danone, National Institute for Health and Care Research, British Heart Foundation, European Commission, National Research Foundation, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, National Research Foundation Singapore, National University Health System, Versus Arthritis, National Institute for Health Research Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, Medical Research Council, National Medical Research Council

OpenAlex ID: W2256361870