Abstract
Background: Obesity has changed the epidemiologic profile in Latin America in the last decades. Changes in food variety and availability as well as more sedentary lifestyles have resulted in an increase of obesity at all ages. Approximately 30% of children under 5 years are overweight or obese, a percentage that increases to 40% at 6 years. Among school age children obesity and overweight have more than doubled in the last 15 years.
Aim: To analyze family interaction patterns and their association with eating behavior in obese and normal school children.
Methods: 56 families of 8-9 years old children attending schools in a low socio-economic level neighborhood in Santiago, Chile, were studied. In the sample selected, 50% of the children were obese and matched by sex, height and age with normal weight children. Maternal perception of their child's nutritional status, maternal depression, parental stress and the quality of home stimulation were assessed.
The perception that mothers have of the nutritional status of their children is distorted. Only about 7% of obese children are perceived as such and approximately 25% of the normal children are perceived as wasted. In the assessments aimed at measuring direct mother-child relationship, the obese group showed that mothers have more difficulty in bringing up their children and that the quality of stimulation in their home was poorer. Mothers in both groups had intense depressive symptoms.
Conclusions: There is a deep and dynamic relationship between infant obesity and maternal characteristics which must be known and worked on previous to any nutritional intervention. Supported by DI, Universidad de Chile.
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Castillo, M., Caballero, G., Farías, C. et al. 7 Patterns of Family Interaction and Eating Behavior in Normal and Obese School Children. Pediatr Res 57, 921 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-200506000-00035
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-200506000-00035