OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the prevalence and factors associated with mother's or guardian's perception error of the nutritional status of children in public and private kindergartens of Balneário Camboriu, Santa Catarina, Brazil. METHODS: This cross-sectional study had a two stage sample (n=589). Data collection included anthropometric measurements and administration of a questionnaire with infant and maternal variables. The prevalence ratios (PR) and confidence intervals 95% (CI 95%) were calculated using the Poisson regression, adjusted for complex sampling. RESULTS: Four hundred and ninety-three children were evaluated (83.7%). Gender distribution was homogeneous. Most of the questionnaires were answered by the mothers (95.7%) who were mostly Caucasian with average education level. The prevalence of error in the classification of nutritional status was 18.9% (IC 95% 15.5-22.4%). After adjusted analysis, overweight (RP 4.8 IC 95% 3.8-7.1) or childhood malnutrition (RP 4.6 IC 95% 2.8-7.7) and non-Caucasian caregiver (RP 1.7 IC 95% 1.1-2.6) were associated with greater outcome prevalence, while caregiver aged 24 to 35 years (RP 0.5 IC 95% 0.3-0.8), with higher income (RP 0.6 IC 95% 0.4-0.9) and obesity (RP 0.3 IC 95% 0.1-1.0) had an opposite effect. CONCLUSION: Prevalence of error was similar to that observed in other studies, and was associated with maternal compositional variables and child's nutritional status.
Nutritional status; Mothers; Obesity; Preschool child; Overweight