Anticipatory Guidance about Child Diet and Physical Activity for Latino Farmworker Mothers

This analysis describes farmworker child health care utilization, anticipatory guidance for child weight, and the association of anticipatory guidance with personal characteristics, practice characteristics, and child's health care utilization.

Data are from interviews conducted with 221 North Carolina Latino farmworker mothers with a child aged 4-5 years.

Half of the children were healthy weight, 19.0% were overweight, and 28.5% were obese. Most (56.4%) had been with the usual practice for two years or longer; most had well-child visits less frequently than once per year (71.5%). Fewer children with well-child visits than without were obese (14.8% vs. 35.5%; p=.01). More children with obesity than with healthy weight or overweight received guidance messages; more children without a well-child care visit in the past 12 months received guidance messages.

Health care providers are addressing anticipatory guidance when the opportunity arises. Creative approaches to address disparate primary care for farmworker families are important.