Homogeneity of Maternal Perception of Her Child’s Weight in Northeastern Mexico

Abstract

The objectives were to assess a maternal perception of her child’s weight through two tests, words, and images, to validate tests; and to compare perception among Mexican populations. Participants 2,842 mother– child dyads; the child’s body mass index measurement was the gold standard. Sensitivity, specificity, Kappa value, Z test and homogeneity of Kappas were calculated. By words found that 55.1%, 77.5%, 32.2% and 25.1% of mothers of underweight, normal, overweight, and obese children had an adequate perception. By images found that 76.4%, 92.9%, 73.0%, and 89% of mothers of underweight, normal, overweight, and obese children had an adequate perception. Sensitivity, specificity, and Kappa values for the words were 28.4%, 22.5% and 0.442 (p=0.000); for the images were 81.6%, 23.6% and 0.043 (p=0.001). A small proportion of mothers of overweightobese children had adequate perception by words . The images had higher sensitivity. There are various levels of homogeneity across the States.