Maternal misperceptions of children's overweight in an indigenous Argentinean community.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the prevalence of misperception between 2 groups of mothers towards their children's weight status from an indigenous population in San Antonio de los Cobres (SAC) and a Buenos Aires (BA) mixed population.


METHODS
Questionnaires regarding mothers' perceptions about their children's shape were performed during 2014.


RESULTS
Overall, 152 SAC children (80 males) aged 9.0+2.1 years and 119 BA children (59 males) aged 8.1+1.7 years were evaluated. There was a significant difference in the prevalence of maternal misperception of normal weight vs overweight children in both ethnicities: SAC (38.8% vs 66.7%) and BA (33.3% vs 62.9%).


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that maternal misperception of children's overweight was poor in both communities despite having different socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds.
University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. vhirschler@gmail.com.
Valeria
V
Hirschler
University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Claudia
C
Molinari
University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Claudio
C
Gonzalez
D000328:Adult; D001118:Argentina / Q000208:ethnology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000208:ethnology*; D044382:Population Groups / Q000208:ethnology*; D012923:Social Class; D014505:Urban Population