title: Childhood obesity: parents fail to recognise, general practitioners fail to act.
abstract: General Practitioners (GPs) have an important role to play in recognition of and intervention against childhood obesity in Ireland. Data were collected prospectively on a cohort of children aged 4-14 and their parents (n = 101 pairs) who attended consecutively to a semi-rural group general practice. Parents estimated their child's weight status. Actual weight status was determined for both parent and child using the United States Centres' for Disease Control's BMI-for-age references. 15 (14.9%) of the children and 49 (51.6%) of the parents were overweight or obese. While 71 (95.5%) of normal weight status children were correctly identified, parents showed poor concordance in identifying their children as overweight 2 (18.2%) or obese 0 (0%). BMI was only evidently recorded in the clinical records of 1 out of 15 cases of overweight children identified. With parents failing to recognise childhood obesity, GPs have a responsibility in tackling this problem at a family level.
authors.affiliation: Chapelizod Medical Centre, Belgrove Park, Chapelizod, Dublin 20. afric@ireland.com
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Houlihan
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Darker
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: O'Shea
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010290:Parents; D010821:Physicians, Family; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012424:Rural Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires