BMJ  2005;330:23-24 (1 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.38315.451539.F7 (published 26 November 2004)

Primary care

Parents' awareness of overweight in themselves and their children: cross sectional study within a cohort (EarlyBird 21)

¹ Peninsula Medical School, University Medicine, Derriford Hospital, Plymouth PL6 8DH

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

Obesity is a serious public health concern. More than half of British adults are overweight, and obesity among preschool children has increased by an alarming 70% in the past generation.^{1 2} We aimed to explore parents' awareness of overweight and obesity in themselves and their children, and their degree of concern about weight.

Participants, methods, and results

We studied 277 healthy randomly recruited children (mean age 7.4 years) and parents from the EarlyBird study.³ Overweight and obesity were defined as body mass index at least 25 and 30 in adults, and at least 91st and 98th centiles of the UK 1990 body mass index reference curves for children.⁴

Before we weighed them, parents completed a written questionnaire asking them to estimate their own and their child's weight on a five point scale ranging from "very underweight" to "very overweight." Responses indicating level of concern about weight were similarly ranked from "very worried about underweight" to . . . [Full text of this article]

Comment

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Changing perceptions of weight in Great Britain: comparison of two population surveys

F Johnson, L Cooke, H Croker, and Jane Wardle
BMJ 2008 337: a494. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Fitzgibbon, M. L., Beech, B. M. (2009). The Role of Culture in the Context of School-Based BMI Screening. Pediatrics 124: S50-S62 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Morley, B., Wakefield, M., Dunlop, S., Hill, D. (2009). Impact of a mass media campaign linking abdominal obesity and cancer: a natural exposure evaluation. Health Educ Res 0: cyp034v1-cyp034 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Warschburger, P., Kroller, K. (2009). Maternal Perception of Weight Status and Health Risks Associated With Obesity in Children. Pediatrics 124: e60-e68 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Grimmett, C., Croker, H., Carnell, S., Wardle, J. (2008). Telling Parents Their Child's Weight Status: Psychological Impact of a Weight-Screening Program. Pediatrics 122: e682-e688 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Johnson, F, Cooke, L, Croker, H, Wardle, J. (2008). Changing perceptions of weight in Great Britain: comparison of two population surveys. BMJ 337: a494-a494 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Neumark-Sztainer, D., Wall, M., Story, M., van den Berg, P. (2008). Accurate Parental Classification of Overweight Adolescents' Weight Status: Does It Matter?. Pediatrics 121: e1495-e1502 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Stewart, L, Chapple, J, Hughes, A R, Poustie, V, Reilly, J J (2008). Parents' journey through treatment for their child's obesity: a qualitative study. Arch. Dis. Child. 93: 35-39 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• He, M., Evans, A. (2007). Are parents aware that their children are overweight or obese?: Do they care?. cfp 53: 1493-1499 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Huang, J. S., Becerra, K., Oda, T., Walker, E., Xu, R., Donohue, M., Chen, I., Curbelo, V., Breslow, A. (2007). Parental Ability to Discriminate the Weight Status of Children: Results of a Survey. Pediatrics 120: e112-e119 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Lucas, P, Arai, L, Baird, J, Kleijnen, J, Law, C, Roberts, H (2007). A systematic review of lay views about infant size and growth. Arch. Dis. Child. 92: 120-127 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Jansen, W., Brug, J. (2006). Parents often do not recognize overweight in their child, regardless of their socio-demographic background. Eur J Public Health 16: 645-647 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Mendoza, J. A., Drewnowski, A., Cheadle, A., Christakis, D. A. (2006). Dietary Energy Density Is Associated with Selected Predictors of Obesity in U.S. Children. J. Nutr. 136: 1318-1322 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Haisman, N, Matyka, K A, Stanton, A, Rudolf, M C J (2005). Lessons from an unsuccessful local attempt to tackle childhood overweight and obesity * Author's reply. Arch. Dis. Child. 90: 984-985 [Full text]  
• Kemp, C. (2005). Parents fail to recognize kids' weight problems. AAP News 26: 2-2 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Who is Wonrg?

Tim S Hammond
bmj.com, 27 Nov 2004 [Full text]

To what extent the parents recognition is the problem?

Hora Soltani
bmj.com, 29 Nov 2004 [Full text]

Re: Who is Wrong?

Alison N Jeffery, et al.
bmj.com, 31 Jan 2005 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more >>