Children's, their guardians', and health care professionals' perceptions of child overweight in relation to children's weight loss attempts.
OBJECTIVE
To examine accuracy of children's, their guardians', and health care professionals' (HCPs') perceptions of child overweight and obesity, the degree of agreement between their perceptions, and relationships with weight loss attempts among overweight or obese children.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study using 2005-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.


METHODS
United States.


METHODS
Out of 4691 children and adolescents, ages 8 to 15 years, 16.4% were overweight (body mass index [BMI] percentiles 85-94.99) and 19.3% were obese (BMI percentiles ≥95).


METHODS
Age and sex-specific BMI percentiles; responses of adult proxies (guardians) on whether they considered their child overweight and whether an HCP had ever told them that their child was overweight; responses of children and adolescents on their self-perceived weight status and whether they were trying to lose weight; children's and guardians' socio-demographic characteristics.


METHODS
Weighted percentages; sensitivities and Cohen's kappas; adjusted prevalence ratios.


RESULTS
Children, their guardians, and HCPs underestimated child's actual overweight or obesity status. Little agreement existed between overweight or obese children, their parents, and HCPs on whether these children were overweight or obese. Overweight and obese children perceived as such by themselves, their guardians, and HCPs were 88% and 32%, respectively, more likely to attempt weight loss based on multivariable analyses.


CONCLUSIONS
Accurate and shared perceptions of adiposity in children and adolescents between children themselves, their guardians, and HCPs are positively associated with weight loss attempts among overweight or obese children in the United States.
Y N
YN
Tarasenko
L M
LM
Rossen
K C
KC
Schoendorf
D050154:Adiposity; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D050177:Overweight / Q000523:psychology; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000523:psychology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D061217:Weight Reduction Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
Children and Adolescents; Health focus: weight control; Manuscript format: research; NHANES; Obesity; Outcome measure: cognitive behavioral; Overweight; Perceptions; Prevention Research; Research purpose: descriptive, modeling/relationship testing; Setting: national; Strategy: culture change; Study design: nonexperimental; Target population age: youth, adults; Target population circumstances: full spectrum of socio-demographic characteristics; Weight Loss