Parental Perception of Body Weight Status of Their 8-year-old Children: Findings from the European CHOP Study

• Published in: Maternal and child health journal Vol. 26; no. 6; pp. 1274 - 1282
• Main Authors: Xhonneux, Annick, Langhendries, Jean-Paul, Martin, Françoise, Seidel, Laurence, Albert, Adelin, Dain, Elena, Totzauer, Martina, Grote, Veit, Luque, Veronica, Closa-Monasterolo, Ricardo, Dionigi, Alice Re, Verduci, Elvira, Gruszfeld, Darius, Socha, Piotr, Koletzko, Berthold
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2022; Springer; Springer Nature B.V; Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers
• Subjects: BMI; Body mass index; Body weight; Children; Children & youth; Education; Elementary school students; Food and nutrition; Gynecology; Health aspects; Healthy children; Human health sciences; Maternal and Child Health; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Obesity; Obesity in children; Overweight; Parental child weight perception; Parents; Parents & parenting; Pediatric research; Pediatrics; Perception; Perceptions; Population Economics; Public Health; Pédiatrie; Risk factors; Scale of sketches; Sciences de la santé humaine; Sociology; Surveys; Europe; Scale of sketches; Parental child weight perception; BMI; Healthy children
• ISSN: 1092-7875; 1573-6628; 1573-6628
• DOI: 10.1007/s10995-021-03334-w

Background Maternal perception of child weight status in children with overweight or obesity has received a lot of attention but data on paternal perception of children from presumably healthy cohorts are lacking. Objective We aimed to investigate paternal and maternal perception of child weight status at the age of 8 years in a cohort of 591 children from 5 European countries. Material and Methods Included were 8-year-old children and their parents participating in the European Childhood Obesity Project (EU CHOP). Weight and height of children and parents were measured and Body Mass Index (BMI, kg/m 2 ) was calculated. Both parents were asked to assess their perception of child weight status using Eckstein scales and their concern about child overweight. The agreement between mother and father perceptions was assessed by Cohen kappa coefficient and their relationship was analyzed by linear mixed effects models based on ordinal logistic regression, accounting for country, child gender and BMI, parental BMI, level of education, concern and type of feeding during first year of life. Results Data from children and both parents were available for 432 girls and boys. Mean BMI was comparable in boys and girls (16.7 ± 2.31 vs. 16.9 ± 2.87 kg/m 2 , P = 0.55). In total, 172 children (29.3%) were overweight or obese. There was a high degree of agreement between mother and father perceptions of their child’s weight status (Cohen kappa 0.77). Multivariate modelling showed that perception levels significantly increased with child BMI but were globally lower than assessed. They differed between countries, gender and types of feeding during first year of life, were influenced by education level of the father but were not related to parental BMI and concern about childhood overweight. Conclusions The study showed no overall differences between mothers and fathers in rating their child’s weight status but both parents had a propensity to underestimate their child’s actual weight, particularly in boys. The EU CHOP trial registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00338689.