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- All Subjects: Childhood Obesity
- Creators: Crespo, Noe
Description
Objectives: Although childhood obesity has received growing attention, parents still fail to recognize overweight and obesity in their children. Accurate identification of overweight or obesity in their child is associated with the parent's responsiveness to interventions aimed at preventing weight-related health issues. Recent research shows that a child's age and gender are associated with parental misperception of their child's weight status, but little is known about the interaction of these factors across various age groups. This study examined the association between a wide range of parent, child, and household factors and the accuracy of parental perception of their child's body weight status compared to parent-measured body weight status. Methods: Data were collected from a random-digit-dial telephone survey of 1708 households located in five low-income New Jersey cities with large minority populations. A subset of 548 children whose parents completed the survey and returned a worksheet of parent-measured heights and weights were the focus of the analysis. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine the factors significantly associated with parental perception of their child's body weight status. Results: Based on parent-measure heights and weights, 36% of the children were overweight or obese (OWOB). Only 21% of OWOB children were perceived by their parents as OWOB. Child gender, child body mass index (BMI) and parent BMI were significant independent predictors of parents' accuracy at perceiving their child's body weight status. Conclusion: Boys, OWOB children, and children of OWOB parents had significantly greater odds of parental underestimation of their body weight status. Parents had better recognition of OWOB in their daughters, especially older daughters, than in their sons, suggesting parental gender bias in identifying OWOB in children. Further research is needed regarding parental gender bias and its implications in OWOB identification in children.
ContributorsBader, Wendy (Author) / Ohri-Vachaspati, Punam (Thesis advisor) / Lloyd, Kristen (Committee member) / Crespo, Noe (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The purpose of this paper is to examine the current health status of children and adults in the United States as it relates to the current obesity epidemic. There will also be an examination of how nutrition education is commonly presented to children currently and how it was presented in a community-based health intervention, Athletes for Life, during a six-week pilot program of the intervention. Using the data compiled on the current health status of the population of the United States, the methods of intervention examined and the seemingly most effective means to relay nutrition information to school-age children, a coordinated nutrition curriculum will be proposed and implemented into the efficacy portion of Athletes for Life, a ten-week intervention.
ContributorsMcGhee, Andrian Q. (Author) / Crespo, Noe (Thesis director) / Vega Lopez, Sonia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Childhood obesity is a worsening epidemic in the U.S. with substantial racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities. Community-based approaches are necessary to target populations that are disproportionately affected by childhood obesity. The current randomized controlled trial assessed the effects of Athletes for Life (AFL), a 12-week community-based nutrition education and physical activity program that aims to improve cardiovascular fitness and promote healthy eating among families in the South Phoenix region, relative to a control condition. One of the goals of the intervention was to increase participating children's intake of fruits/vegetables and reduce their sugar intake, measured by a parent-reported food-frequency questionnaire. Data were collected on 110 child participants aged 6-11 years old. Relative to baseline values, participants in the intervention reportedly increased their fruit intake frequency by 0.12 + 2.0 times per day, whereas the control group decreased their intake by 0.32 + 1.28 times per day (p=0.026). Participants in the intervention group also increased their vegetable intake by 0.21 + 0.65 times per day, whereas control participants decreased their intake by 0.05 + 0.72 times per day (p=0.019). Participants in the intervention group decreased their intake of sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake by 0.22 + 0.62 times per day, whereas control participants decreased their intake of SSBs by 0.04 + 0.40 times per day, however, the change observed in SSB intake was not significant between groups. Lastly, frequency of sugar-laden food intake decreased by 0.86 + 1.10 times per day among the intervention group, whereas control participants increased their intake by 0.02 + 1.10 times per day (p=0.033). The AFL study may serve as a framework for future community-based interventions to promote health in underserved areas.
ContributorsCirjan, Ioana Alina (Author) / Vega-Lopez, Sonia (Thesis director) / Crespo, Noe (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Hispanic children have the highest prevalence of obesity versus other ethnic groups. This leaves this population susceptible to many adverse health risks, including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure. Unfortunately, little research has been done investigating the contributing cause to this issue, specifically common sedentary behaviors in children that limit physical activity and it’s purpose in expending energy. Amongst these behaviors, amount of time spent on electronic devices has proven to have increased drastically in recent years. The relationship between screen time and electronic device use, specifically with television, video games, and computer usage, and physical activity levels, and how those affect cardiometabolic disease risk factors, were explored in this study. Participants of this study were elementary school-aged children from Maricopa County, AZ. Electronic device usage, physical activity amounts, and presence of the specific devices in the child’s were collected from the participants’ parents through self-reported survey questions. Anthropometric and biochemical markers of cardiometabolic disease risk were directly measured. The average time spent engaged in physical activity per day by these participants was 20.02 ± 21.1 minutes and the average total screen time per day was 655 ± 605 minutes. Findings showed strong significance between total screen time and computer and video game use (r=0.482; p=0.01 and r=0.784; p=0.01, respectively). Video game time in the group of children with a video game in their room (350.66 ± 445.96 min/day) was significantly higher than the sample of kids without one in their room (107.19 ± 210.0 min/day ; p=0.000). Total screen time was also significantly greater with children who had a video game system in their room (927.56 ± 928.7 min/day) versus children who did not (543.14 ± 355.11 min/day; p=0.006). Additionally, significance was found showing children with a computer in the bedroom spent more time using the computer per day (450.95 ± 377.95 min/day), compared to those children who did not have a computer in their room (333.5 ± 395.6 min/day; p=0.048). No significant association was found between metabolic markers and screen time. However, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and insulin proved to be dependent on BMI percentile (r=-0.582; p=0.01, r=0.476; p=0.01, r=0.704; p=0.01 respectively). Our data suggest further research needs to be done investigating other potential sources that limit physical activity so that strategies can focus on reducing obesity incidence and the associated health risks. Future studies should use larger sample sizes to be more representative of this population, and develop more direct observations instead of self-reported values to limit bias.
ContributorsGaines, Michael Anthony (Author) / Vega-Lopez, Sonia (Thesis director) / Crespo, Noe (Committee member) / School for the Science of Health Care Delivery (Contributor) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05