Felipe Javier Uribe Salas
National System of Researcher, Mexico
Title: Self-perception of weight though corporal fi gures in children of school age in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico
Biography
Biography: Felipe Javier Uribe Salas
Abstract
Introduction: The prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased worldwide. This phenomenon also affects the Mexican population, particularly schooling children. In this context, lack of awareness of excess weight among overweight and obese children is a public health concern that needs to be explored in the Northern border of Mexico.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out including children from third to sixth grades of basic education. Measurements of weight and height were obtained to calculate BMI and its percentiles. The Children’s Body Image Scale (CBIS) was applied to evaluate perceived and ideal BMI comparing against calculated BMI. We also analyze the frequency of accurate perceivers of actual weight and discrepancy of ideal weight against calculated BMI.
Results: The results indicated that we studied 155 children (43.8% were female) with an average of 10.2 years of age. Accuracy prevalence of BMI perceived respect to calculated BMI was 59.4% (weighted Kappa coefficient of 0.30). Discrepancy prevalence of ideal BMI respect to calculated BMI was 44.4%. Comparison of perceived BMI respect to calculated BMI showed an overestimation on low weight category (33%) and sub-estimations in categories of normal weight (12.4%), overweight (85%) and obesity (81.6%). Comparison of ideal BMI respect to calculated BMI showed an absolute overestimation of low weight and underestimations in categories of normal weight, overweight and obesity of 5.6%, 100% and 97.4%, respectively.
Discussion: The results of this work showed consistently an underestimation of children’s body weight, particularly among those classified in categories of overweight and obesity in a demographic context in which the prevalence of both categories was high of 38% in this study.