Table 5.
Children's weight-related attitudes and behaviors by actual and perceived weight status.
| Questions/items | Underweight children (n = 547) |
Normal-weight children (n = 2415) |
Overweight children (n = 790) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accurate (83.7%) | Overestimateb (16.3%) | Underestimate (34.1%) | Accurate (59.1%) | Overestimate (6.8%) | Underestimatec (25.3%) | Accurate (74.7%) | |
| Weight-related attitudes | |||||||
| To what extent do you think obesity is bad for health? [great or rather great] | 330 (73.2) | 58 (69.0) | 625 (77.2) | 1139 (80.7) | 130 (70.7) | 152 (77.6) | 464 (79.6) |
| Are you satisfied with your weight status? [no or rather no] | 270 (59.0) | 14 (15.7)∗∗ | 352 (42.9) | 115 (8.1) | 90 (55.2)∗∗ | 28 (14.1) | 364 (62.1)∗∗ |
| Do you want to change your present weight status? [yes or rather yes] | 310 (67.8) | 26 (29.5)∗∗ | 446 (54.5) | 346 (24.3) | 125 (78.1)∗∗ | 69 (35.6) | 490 (83.9)∗∗ |
| Do you believe you can achieve an ideal weight status through effort? [yes or rather yes] | 285 (62.5) | 62 (69.7) | 507 (61.7) | 1008 (71.5) | 118 (72.8)∗∗ | 148 (75.1) | 408 (69.5) |
| Weight-related behaviors [reaching rate] | |||||||
| Fruit [daily intake ≥2 servingsa/day] | 91 (20.6) | 28 (32.6)∗ | 183 (23.6) | 374 (27.2) | 43 (27.9) | 51 (26.3) | 150 (26.6) |
| Vegetable [daily intake ≥3 servingsa/day] | 74 (16.4) | 20 (22.7) | 141 (17.3) | 296 (21.1) | 34 (21.0) | 31 (16.0) | 137 (23.6)∗ |
| Meat products [daily intake ≤1 servinga/day] | 285 (62.4) | 58 (66.7) | 528 (64.3) | 912 (64.1) | 96 (58.9) | 130 (65.3) | 349 (59.7) |
| Breakfast [frequency = 7 day/week] | 431 (94.3) | 82 (93.2) | 769 (93.6) | 1348 (94.7) | 145 (89.0)∗ | 188 (94.0) | 551 (93.5) |
| SSBs [daily intake = 0 cups/week] | 227 (50.3) | 46 (53.5) | 361 (44.5) | 619 (44.0) | 72 (44.7) | 77 (39.1) | 220 (37.7) |
| High-energy snacks [frequency = 0 day/week] | 135 (29.5) | 33 (37.5) | 285 (34.7) | 451 (31.8) | 60 (36.8) | 72 (36.0) | 198 (33.9) |
| Fried food [frequency = 0 times/week] | 313 (68.9) | 55 (62.5) | 522 (63.6) | 885 (62.5) | 106 (65.0) | 124 (62.0) | 337 (57.4) |
| Western-style fast food [frequency = 0 times/week] | 213 (47.0) | 45 (52.3) | 359 (44.0) | 629 (44.4) | 79 (48.8) | 86 (43.0) | 233 (39.9) |
| Screen time [daily time ≤ 2 h/day] | 387 (87.8) | 74 (86.0) | 671 (84.0) | 1180 (85.8) | 124 (77.0)∗ | 160 (81.6) | 458 (79.5) |
| MVPA [daily time ≥ 1 h/day] | 113 (27.7) | 31 (38.3) | 243 (33.8) | 486 (37.6) | 48 (32.0) | 83 (46.6) | 176 (33.7)∗ |
SSBs, sugar-sweetened beverages; MVPA, moderate to vigorous physical activity.
All values are presented as number (percentage).
Differences of items between different perceptions within underweight, normal-weight, or overweight children were evaluated using Pearson Chi-Square tests.
∗P < 0.05, ∗∗P < 0.01.
A serving of fruit or vegetable was equivalent to 100 g, whereas a serving of meat products was equivalent to 75 g.
The overestimators in underweight group included 87 children who perceived themselves as normal weight and 2 children who perceived themselves as overweight.
The underestimators in overweight group included 6 children who perceived themselves as underweight and 194 children who perceived themselves as normal weight.