Editorial
Edna Gamboa-Delgado
Abstract
Statement of the Problem: Different parental feeding practices or not may favor healthy eating behaviors in children. Some of these practices could increase the risk of childhood obesity. Objective: To evaluate the association between parental feeding practices and childhood obesity in less fortunate children. Methodology: Analytical cross sectional in preschool children and their parents (n=384), beneficiaries of government programs of the Colombian Family Welfare Institute aimed at economically, socially and nutritionally vulnerable population. A 55-item Parental Feeding Practices Questionnaire, validated in Latino parents was used (response options ranged from never (=1) to always (=5)). The sample was chosen by simple random sample from the total number of child development centers of Bucaramanga, Colombia. Models of binomial regression were used. Findings: The average of parent’s age was 33.47 years 10.96. The 52.59% of participants belonged to low socio-economic status. The overweight or obesity prevalence was 4.83% (CI 95% 2.78; 7.73). The most common parental feeding practices were encourage/compliment healthy eating (median: 4.1) and ask child what he/she ate (Median: 4.0), both belonging to positive involvement in child eating dimension, followed by tell child to eat all food on plate (median: 3.57) of pressure to eat dimension. The children whose parents ask them what he/she ate, have less probability of present childhood obesity (RR: 0.68, CI 95%: 0.44; 0.96, p=0.043), while children whose parents use food as gift have mostly two times more chances of develop childhood obesity (RR: 1.86, CI: 1.15; 3.01; p=0.011). Conclusion & Significance: This study provides evidence that some parental feeding practices are associated with childhood obesity in Colombian vulnerable children. These findings are important for the design, implementation and evaluation of nutrition education programs focused on parents. Biography Edna Gamboa-Delgado is a Nutritionist and Dietitian and has completed her Master in Epidemiology, PhD in Science in Population Nutrition. She is an Associate Researcher (Colombian´s Research Classification System - Colciencias). Her areas of interest is in research in childhood obesity, nutrition and public health, chronic diseases and diet, nutrition education interventions, nutritional epidemiology, design, implementation, monitoring and assessment of food and nutrition programs. In recent years she has been developing a research line on childhood obesity, its associated factors and interventions for its control. Currently she is working as an Associate Professor at Nutrition School of Universidad Industrial de Santander in Bucaramanga, Colombia.