Do you see what I see? Weight status misperception and exposure to obesity among children and adolescents

• Published in: International Journal of Obesity Vol. 32; no. 6; pp. 1008 - 1015
• Main Authors: Maximova, K, McGrathy, J.J, Barnett, T, O'Loughlin, J, Paradis, G, Lambert, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.06.2008; Nature Publishing; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Analysis; Biological and medical sciences; Body Image; Body Mass Index; Body Weight; Cardiovascular disease; Child; Children; Children & youth; disease prevention; Epidemiologic Methods; Epidemiology; Exercise; Female; General aspects; Health aspects; Health behavior; Health care; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Health risk assessment; Health risks; height; Humans; Internal Medicine; Life Style; lifestyle; Lifestyles; Male; Measurement; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic Diseases; Obesity; Obesity in children; original-article; Overweight; Overweight - epidemiology; Overweight - psychology; Parents; Peer Group; peers; Perceptions; Polls & surveys; Prevention; psychology; Public Health; Quebec; Schools; Social Perception; Students; Students - psychology; Teenagers; Quebec; Canada; North America; America; schoolmate; weight misperception; parent; multilevel modeling; children; overweight; Human; Obesity; Body perception; Nutrition; Parent; Body weight; Nutrition disorder; Metabolic diseases; Corporal biometry; Exposure; Modeling; Overweight; Multilevel analysis; Adolescent; Child; Nutritional status; Public health
• ISSN: 0307-0565; 1476-5497; 1476-5497
• DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2008.15

Objective: Obesity prevention in childhood is important. However, changing children's lifestyle behaviors to reduce overweight is a substantial challenge. Accurately perceiving oneself as overweight/obese has been linked to greater motivation to change lifestyle behaviors. Children and adolescents may be less likely to perceive themselves as overweight/obese if they are exposed to overweight/obese people in their immediate environments. This study examined whether youth who are exposed to overweight parents and schoolmates were more likely to misperceive their own weight status. Design: The Quebec Child and Adolescent Health and Social Survey was a provincially representative, school-based survey of children and adolescents conducted between January and May 1999. Subjects: 3665 children and adolescents (age 9, n=1267; age 13, n=1186; age 16, n=1212) from 178 schools. Mean body mass index (BMI) was 17.5, 20.6 and 22.2 kg/m2, respectively. Measurements: The misperception score was calculated as the standardized difference between self-perception of weight status (Stunkard Body Rating Scale) and actual BMI (from measured height and weight). Exposure to obesity was based on parent and schoolmate BMI. Results: Overweight and obese youth were significantly more likely to misperceive their weight compared with non-overweight youth (P<0.001). Multilevel modeling indicated that greater parent and schoolmate BMI were significantly associated with greater misperception (underestimation) of weight status among children and adolescents. Conclusion: Children and adolescents who live in environments in which people they see on a daily basis, such as parents and schoolmates, are overweight/obese may develop inaccurate perceptions of what constitutes appropriate weight status. Targeting misperception may facilitate the adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors and improve the effectiveness of obesity prevention interventions.