Abstract

BELLO, Fernanda Paixão Silveira et al. Parental awareness of overweight and obesity: an exploratory study addressing low-income adolescents in Brazil. J. Hum. Growth Dev. [online]. 2015, vol.25, n.3, pp. 287-291. ISSN 0104-1282.  http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.106000.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate parental awareness and management of overweight and obesity in a sample of low income adolescents registered in a primary health care center (PHCC) in Brazil METHOD: Among adolescents registered in the PHCC, 142 agreed to participate in this study and their body mass index was calculated. Unaware of the anthropometric data, parents were visited at home and asked to select a descriptor for their offspring's body weight (underweight, about right, overweight, and obese RESULTS: Seventeen adolescents were classified as overweight (12.0%) and 14 as obese (10.0%). Among 17 overweight adolescents, 13 (76.5%) were accurately identified by their parents in that condition, and among 13 obese adolescents, 12 (92.3%) were. Three parents of overweight (23.1%) and five parents (41.6%) of obese adolescents tried to manage their offspring's weight problem with a healthcare provider support CONCLUSIONS: Despite the fact that parental recognition was relatively high in this population, our data revealed a low demand for interventionsto reverse the adolescent's overweight and obesity

Keywords : obesidade; adolescente; atenção primária à saúde.

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