Cross-sectional study reveals screen time and parental misperception correlate with obesity in preschool children, highlighting barriers to preventive care.
Key Points
To determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity risk in early childhood, evaluate parental feeding practices, and compare measured child body mass index against parental weight perceptions.
Conducted a descriptive, cross-sectional study of 347 children aged 36 to 72 months between 2019 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Measured heights and weights of children and parents to classify body mass index using World Health Organization criteria.
Evaluated parental feeding behaviors and weight recognition using the Child Feeding Questionnaire and Parents' Perception of Healthy Weight assessment.
Higher child body mass index demonstrated a statistically significant association with increased screen time (p < 0.05).
Child body mass index showed a statistically significant inverse association with parental age, linking higher child weight to younger parents (p < 0.05).
None of the parents of the 31 children classified as obese accurately identified their child as being obese.