Obesity in Polish Children and Parents’ Perception of Their Children’s Weight Status: The Results of the SOPKARD-Junior Study

Klaudia Suligowska; Jacek Buczny

doi:10.3390/ijerph19084433

Obesity in Polish Children and Parents’ Perception of Their Children’s Weight Status: The Results of the SOPKARD-Junior Study

Klaudia Suligowska^*
, Jacek Buczny

^*Corresponding author for this work

Organizational Psychology

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

One way to counteract the spread of obesity in children is its early recognition by parents. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate whether parents’ perception of their children’s BMI category was consistent with their actual BMI assessment and to determine potential influential factors. The study was conducted as part of the “A program for the early detection of risk factors for lifestyle diseases SOPKARD-Junior” (SOPKARD-Junior), a preventive health program implemented in public elementary schools from 2017 to 2019. The results from 381 children with a mean age of 11.67 (SD = 1.52) were analyzed. Height and weight were measured and BMI was calculated. Surveys were conducted to assess parents’ perceptions of their child’s weight, along with their sociodemographic status. Nearly one in three parents were unable to correctly identify their children’s weight; 25.0% underestimated it, and 6.0% overestimated it. Underestimation was observed along with an increase in the children’s BMI weight category, with as many as 57.1% of parents of obese children misclassifying their weight. The child’s BMI was the only significant predictor of incorrect assessment. Polish parents cannot properly assess their children’s BMI, especially when their child is overweight or obese. In children, weight and height measurements should be taken regularly, rather than allowing weight category to be dependent upon parental weight assessments.

Original language	English
Article number	4433
Pages (from-to)	1-14
Number of pages	14
Journal	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume	19
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084433
Publication status	Published - 2 Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Published online: 7 April 2022.

This article belongs to the Special Issue: Toward a Better Understanding of Young People's Health in Central and Eastern European Countries.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Funding

The SOPKARD-Junior program and/or the preparation of the manuscript were financed by the funds of the City Hall in Sopot, the statutory funds of the Medical University of Gdansk, and from the unrestricted educational grants from Servier Poland. The publication cost was funded by a grant from the Medical University of Gdańsk (“Excellence Initiative—Research University”)-this funders (“Excellence Initiative—Research University”) had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

BMI
childhood obesity
children
early detection
overweight
parental perception
pediatric obesity
Poland
weight perceptions

Access to Document

10.3390/ijerph19084433

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Cite this

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title = "Obesity in Polish Children and Parents{\textquoteright} Perception of Their Children{\textquoteright}s Weight Status: The Results of the SOPKARD-Junior Study",

abstract = "One way to counteract the spread of obesity in children is its early recognition by parents. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate whether parents{\textquoteright} perception of their children{\textquoteright}s BMI category was consistent with their actual BMI assessment and to determine potential influential factors. The study was conducted as part of the “A program for the early detection of risk factors for lifestyle diseases SOPKARD-Junior” (SOPKARD-Junior), a preventive health program implemented in public elementary schools from 2017 to 2019. The results from 381 children with a mean age of 11.67 (SD = 1.52) were analyzed. Height and weight were measured and BMI was calculated. Surveys were conducted to assess parents{\textquoteright} perceptions of their child{\textquoteright}s weight, along with their sociodemographic status. Nearly one in three parents were unable to correctly identify their children{\textquoteright}s weight; 25.0\% underestimated it, and 6.0\% overestimated it. Underestimation was observed along with an increase in the children{\textquoteright}s BMI weight category, with as many as 57.1\% of parents of obese children misclassifying their weight. The child{\textquoteright}s BMI was the only significant predictor of incorrect assessment. Polish parents cannot properly assess their children{\textquoteright}s BMI, especially when their child is overweight or obese. In children, weight and height measurements should be taken regularly, rather than allowing weight category to be dependent upon parental weight assessments.",

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author = "Klaudia Suligowska and Jacek Buczny",

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Obesity in Polish Children and Parents’ Perception of Their Children’s Weight Status: The Results of the SOPKARD-Junior Study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

Persistent URL (handle)

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Cite this