Endocrine Abstracts

There are limited numbers of studies concerning family education as a risk factor for obesity in children. We aimed to examine the relationship between a children’s weight and family/psychosocial factors, to establish gender differences in eating behavior in obese children.

Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study involved 65 obese children (m/f=33/32, mean age 13.5±0.5 years) and 65 mothers. Obesity was defined as BMI scores at or above the 97th percentile for age and gender. Psychological examination was conducted by Eidemiller test of family education and IEG-Kind test. All the analyses were performed with the Statistics 6.0 software, P-value <0.05 was accepting as statistically significant. ANOVA test was used for unpaired data.

Results: Significant gender differences (P<0.05) were observed on the criteria: food remedy against the emotional stress, food as a problem; food restriction, fear of weight gain. In the girl^’s group at the early puberty stage were revealed a negative correlation with BMI criteria: power and dependency needs for food (r=−0.36); importance and influence of foods (r=−0.41); forcing parents (r=−0.45). In older age girls a correlation BMI and points of IEG-Kind were observed: food as a remedy against stress (r=0.41); strength and the need for food (r=0.38); dissatisfaction with their Default (r=0.45) noted increased correlation BMI and coercion by parents (r=−0.78). Two tests correlation analysis found differences depending on the stage of pubertat stage: in early puberty marked by a strong relationship between parents and the child’s body weight (r=0.53), increased fear of its increasing (r=0.56). Before pubertat group increased importance of food as a remedy against stress, excessive demands by the parents, satisfaction of requirements. Correlation between body’s dissatisfaction and lack of child care parents were observed (r=0.71).

Conclusion: Findings indicated on the sex and age differences regarding its own body, restriction of food in children with obesity.