title: The association between self perceptions of psychological well-being and overweight in Brazilian children.
abstract: Our objective was to estimate the prevalence and test the association between psychological well-being and overweight in children. We conducted a cross-sectional study using anthropometrical measures and interviews with 1048 6-10-year-old school children from a Brazilian town. Overweight was assessed by the body mass index and included obesity. Psychological data of children and their parents were collected using a face scale. Poisson regression models were used to test the associations and to obtain unadjusted and adjusted prevalence ratios (PR). The prevalence of overweight was of 15.3% (95% CI: 13.2-17.6) and of only obesity was 3.8% (2.8-5.2). After controlling for age, sex, school type and parental overweight, the prevalence of overweight was 52% and 44% higher in children who reported a psychological dissatisfaction in themselves and in their mothers when compared with those with positive self perception (PR = 1.52 95% CI = 1.02-2.28; P = 0.038) and (PR = 1.44 95% CI = 1.00-2.09; P = 0.049), respectively. The study suggests that actions aiming weight control of children should take into account psychological aspects of children and their families.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde Coletiva, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, São Leopoldo, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Silvia Letícia
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Alexius
authors.forename: Maria Teresa Anselmo
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Olinto
authors.forename: Ruth Liane
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Henn
authors.forename: Marcos Pascoal
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Pattussi
mesh_terms: D015992:Body Mass Index; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005192:Family Health / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000208:ethnology; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D010290:Parents; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012649:Self Concept