Maternal perceptions and self-perception of the nutritional status of children and adolescents from private schools

To describe and compare maternal perception and the self-perception of children/adolescents of their nutritional status, identifying factors associated with incorrect perceptions.

Cross-sectional study carried out in Salvador, BA, Brazil with 1,741 students aged 6 to 19 years, classified according to body mass index (BMI) percentiles as underweight (BMI < p5), well-nourished (p5 /= p95). Students and their mothers answered questions on perception of weight, patterns of physical exercise and dieting. By means of multivariate analysis, factors associated with incorrect maternal and self- perceptions were analyzed.

Self-perceptions were correct in 64.7% of cases and 75.3% of maternal perceptions were correct. The principal factor associated with incorrect self-perception was age between 6 and 9 years (OR = 1.59; 95%CI 1.15-2.20). Among girls, being overweight and practicing physical exercise were characteristics associated with better perception. For boys, the presence of overweight resulted in an increased risk of incorrect self-perception. Among mothers, having an overweight child (OR = 3.02; 95%CI 2.05-4.46) and a child aged from 6 to 9 years (OR = 1.88; 95%CI 1.28-2.76) were associated with incorrect perception.

A failure to correctly perceive weight was very frequent among children and their mothers, especially when children were overweight. These factors could represent obstacles to correctly recognizing nutritional abnormalities.