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Relationship between parent perception of child anthropometric phenotype and body mass index change among children with developmental disabilities

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Abstract

Background

Preschool-age children with developmental disabilities (DD) have higher prevalence of obesity than children without DD. This study aimed to explore the relationship between parent perception of their children’s anthropometric phenotype and child body mass index (BMI) z score change over one school year among preschoolers with DD.

Methods

The analysis consisted of a subsample (N  =  64) of children with DD from a larger randomized controlled trial to test an obesity prevention program in the childcare center setting. Parents ranks their child’s anthropometric phenotype on a visual silhouette chart on a scale from 1 (underweight) to 7 (obese) and that rank score is compared to their BMI z score change over one school year.

Results

The majority (75%) of parents with an obese child underestimated their child’s anthropometric phenotype while 7% parents with a non-obese child overestimated. Parent overestimation of child anthropometric phenotype status is associated with increased BMI z score change over 1 school year among preschool-age children with disabilities.

Conclusion

Parental overestimation of child anthropometric phenotype status was associated with weight gain in preschool children with DD after one school year.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

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Funding

This work was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (Grant number 2014-08403) and NIH F31 (Grant number NIDDK F31DK116533).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, Dallas Campus, Dallas, TX, USA

    Lu-Yu Xie, Folefac D. Atem, Matthew Sunil Mathew & Sarah E. Messiah

  2. Center for Pediatric Population Health, UTHealth School of Public Health and Children’s Health System of Texas, Dallas, TX, USA

    Lu-Yu Xie, Folefac D. Atem, Matthew Sunil Mathew & Sarah E. Messiah

  3. Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA

    Sari Bar

  4. Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

    Cynthia Lebron

  5. Nova Southeastern University, Davie, FL, USA

    Catherina Chang

  6. Department of Pediatrics, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA

    Ruby Natale

Authors
  1. Lu-Yu Xie
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  2. Folefac D. Atem
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  3. Sari Bar
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  4. Matthew Sunil Mathew
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  5. Cynthia Lebron
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  6. Catherina Chang
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  7. Ruby Natale
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  8. Sarah E. Messiah
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Contributions

RN and SEM were the multiple principal investigators of this project and thus had oversight of all aspects of the study. For this manuscript, LX was responsible for conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis and completing the original draft. FA oversaw all statistical analysis. SB and CL assisted with resources and writing review and editing. CC assisted with project management and writing review and editing. SEM was responsible for senior oversight for all phases of the project and the final approval of the version to be published. All authors approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah E. Messiah.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

This project was reviewed and approved by the University of Miami Institutional Review Board.

Conflict of interest

No conflicts of interest to report for all authors. No competing financial interests exist.

Patient consent statement

Informed consent was obtained from all participants or guardians.

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Xie, LY., Atem, F.D., Bar, S. et al. Relationship between parent perception of child anthropometric phenotype and body mass index change among children with developmental disabilities. World J Pediatr 17, 210–214 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12519-021-00420-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12519-021-00420-5

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