IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0059923.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Parental Weight Perceptions: A Cause for Concern in the Prevention and Management of Childhood Obesity in the United Arab Emirates

Author

Listed:
  • Abdulla Aljunaibi
  • Abdishakur Abdulle
  • Nico Nagelkerke

Abstract

Parental participation is a key factor in the prevention and management of childhood obesity, thus parental recognition of weight problems is essential. We estimated parental perceptions and their determinants in the Emirati population. We invited 1541 students (grade 1–12; 50% boys) and their parents, but only 1440 (6–19 years) and their parents consented. Of these, 945 Emirati nationals provided data for analysis. Anthropometric and demographic variables were measured by standard methods. CDC BMI percentile charts for age and sex were used to classify children’s weight. Parental perception of their children’s weight status (underweight, normal, and overweight/obese) was recorded. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify independent predictors of parental perceptions of children’s weight status. Of all parents, 33.8% misclassified their children’s’ weight status; underestimating (27.4%) or overestimating (6.3%). Misclassification was highest among parents of overweight/obese children (63.5%) and underweight (55.1%) children. More importantly, parental perceptions of their children being overweight or obese, among truly overweight/obese children, i.e. correct identification of an overweight/obese child as such, were associated with the true child’s BMI percentile (CDC) with an OR of 1.313 (95% CI: 1.209–1.425; p

Suggested Citation

  • Abdulla Aljunaibi & Abdishakur Abdulle & Nico Nagelkerke, 2013. "Parental Weight Perceptions: A Cause for Concern in the Prevention and Management of Childhood Obesity in the United Arab Emirates," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-5, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0059923
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059923
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0059923
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0059923&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0059923?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Youth, 2005. "Preventing Childhood Obesity Health in the Balance," Mathematica Policy Research Reports ce206c664e4e4d95a510b0692, Mathematica Policy Research.
    2. Committee on Prevention of Obesity in Children & Youth of which Robert C. Whitaker is a member, "undated". "Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 655b9b55a39f4db1a879cc8bb, Mathematica Policy Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Danielle R Bouchard & Travis Hrubeniuk & Brian Helsel & Joel E Williams, 2018. "Sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass, can be diagnosed by having an appendicular skeletal muscle mass divided by height squared that is greater than two standard deviations (SD) or more low," Current Research in Diabetes & Obesity Journal, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 6(4), pages 1-4, March.
    2. Danielle R Bouchard & Travis Hrubeniuk & Brian Helsel & Joel E Williams, 2018. "Sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass, can be diagnosed by having an appendicular skeletal muscle mass divided by height squared that is greater than two standard deviations (SD) or more low," Current Research in Diabetes & Obesity Journal, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 6(4), pages 59-62, March.
    3. Ghanima Alabdullah & Joan Vaccaro & Deborah Abel & Lemia Habib & Fatma Huffman, 2018. "Kuwaiti Mothers’ Perception of Their Child’s Body Mass Index and Their Belief in Early Childhood Dietary Advice," Current Research in Diabetes & Obesity Journal, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 6(4), pages 63-68, March.
    4. Ghanima Alabdullah & Joan Vaccaro & Deborah Abel & Lemia Habib & Fatma Huffman, 2018. "Kuwaiti Mothers’ Perception of Their Child’s Body Mass Index and Their Belief in Early Childhood Dietary Advice," Current Research in Diabetes & Obesity Journal, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 6(4), pages 1-6, March.
    5. Klaudia Suligowska & Jacek Buczny, 2022. "Obesity in Polish Children and Parents’ Perception of Their Children’s Weight Status: The Results of the SOPKARD-Junior Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-14, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Loh, Chung-Ping A. & Li, Qiang, 2013. "Peer effects in adolescent bodyweight: Evidence from rural China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 35-44.
    2. Laura C. Leviton, 2008. "Children's Healthy Weight and the School Environment," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 615(1), pages 38-55, January.
    3. Jeremy D. Goldhaber-Fiebert & Rachel E. Rubinfeld & Jay Bhattacharya & Thomas N. Robinson & Paul H. Wise, 2013. "The Utility of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity Assessment in Relation to Adult Health," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 33(2), pages 163-175, February.
    4. Ariel Chernin, 2008. "The Effects of Food Marketing on Children's Preferences: Testing the Moderating Roles of Age and Gender," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 615(1), pages 101-118, January.
    5. Mancino, Lisa & Todd, Jessica E. & Guthrie, Joanne F. & Lin, Biing-Hwan, 2010. "How Food Away From Home Affects Children's Diet Quality," Economic Research Report 134700, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    6. Cawley, John, 2008. "Contingent valuation analysis of willingness to pay to reduce childhood obesity," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 281-292, July.
    7. repec:mpr:mprres:5848 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. John Cawley & Alex Susskind & Barton Willage, 2020. "The Impact of Information Disclosure on Consumer Behavior: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment of Calorie Labels on Restaurant Menus," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(4), pages 1020-1042, September.
    9. Arkes, Jeremy, 2009. "How the economy affects teenage weight," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 1943-1947, June.
    10. Cawley, John & Frisvold, David & Meyerhoefer, Chad, 2013. "The impact of physical education on obesity among elementary school children," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 743-755.
    11. John Cawley & Chad Meyerhoefer & David Newhouse, 2007. "The impact of state physical education requirements on youth physical activity and overweight," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(12), pages 1287-1301, December.
    12. Jennifer M. Mellor & Ronald B. Rapoport & Daniel Maliniak, 2008. "The Impact of Child Obesity on Active Parental Consent in School-Based Survey Research on Healthy Eating and Physical Activity," Evaluation Review, , vol. 32(3), pages 298-312, June.
    13. Carroll-Scott, Amy & Gilstad-Hayden, Kathryn & Rosenthal, Lisa & Peters, Susan M. & McCaslin, Catherine & Joyce, Rebecca & Ickovics, Jeannette R., 2013. "Disentangling neighborhood contextual associations with child body mass index, diet, and physical activity: The role of built, socioeconomic, and social environments," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 106-114.
    14. Toni Mora & Joan Gil, 2013. "Peer Effects In Adolescent Bmi: Evidence From Spain," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(5), pages 501-516, May.
    15. Cornelia Butler Flora & Ardyth Harris Gillespie, 2009. "Making Healthy Choices to Reduce Childhood Obesity: Community Capitals and Food and Fitness," Community Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 114-122, June.
    16. Chang, Chaeyoung & Jung, Haeil, 2017. "The role of formal schooling on weight in young children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 1-12.
    17. Oluyemisi Kuku & Steven Garasky & Craig Gundersen, 2012. "The relationship between childhood obesity and food insecurity: a nonparametric analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(21), pages 2667-2677, July.
    18. repec:mpr:mprres:6563 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Maoyong Fan & Yanhong Jin, 2014. "Do Neighborhood Parks and Playgrounds Reduce Childhood Obesity?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(1), pages 26-42.
    20. Bauhoff, Sebastian, 2014. "The effect of school district nutrition policies on dietary intake and overweight: A synthetic control approach," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 45-55.
    21. Wendt, Minh, 2008. "Economic, Environmental, and Endowment Effects on Childhood Obesity," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6571, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    22. Dominick, Gregory M. & Saunders, Ruth P. & Dowda, Marsha & Kenison, Kelli & Evans, Alexandra E., 2014. "Effects of a structural intervention and implementation on physical activity among youth in residential children's homes," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 72-79.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0059923. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.