“Every cockroach is beautiful to his mother’s eyes”? A multicentric study on the perception of child’s health status according to the parent.

INTRODUCTION: Childhood obesity is a social health problem in the Western World and an important goal is to analyze and correct risk factors. However, part of the problem could be determined by a different perception of the weight. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In October 2019, we conducted a cross-sectional study in which a questionnaire was administered to the parents of primary and secondary school children in South-East Tuscany, Italy. The aim was to determine the association between children’s Body Mass Index (BMI) and the parent’s perception.RESULTS: Analysis was carried out on 1,405 complete questionnaires. We found that most parents wrongly perceive the weight of their children. 88.3% of parents with obese children believe that their children are of normal weight or only “a little overweight”. 67.6% of parents who have overweight children think that their children are of normal weight (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our results show a misperception of the weight of the children in the parents eyes. The acquisition of healthy behaviour during childhood is extremely important for health in adulthood and for avoiding the onset of associated diseases. Therefore, food education becomes a crucial objective. Children and parents need to increase consciousness of the correct weight and diseases resulting from bad nutrition