Objectives: To evaluate 1) maternal perception (MP) of their child's weight, 2) MP of overweight-obesity (OW-OB) of unrelated children (URC),3) MP of image with health risk, and 4) recognition of OW-OB health risks.
Material and methods: A total of 325 mother-child dyads participated. A panel with 7 images was used.The child's body mass index was the gold standard.
Results: A total of 84 of 100 mothers of OW-OB children did not accurately perceive their children's weight. Of the total sample, 97.5% perceived the OW-OB of URC and 83.1% the OW-OB image with health risk. Most of the mothers recognized the health risks.
Conclusion: It is necessary to design multidisciplinary intervention programs to help mothers of OW-OB children accurately recognize their children's weight and, thus, reduce the high prevalence of OW-OB in our population.