Socioeconomic and Family Aspects Associated with Obese Children and Adolescents

A cross-sectional, correlational study was conducted on a non-probabilistic sample consisting of 528 families that have children with exogenous obesity, aged 2-18 years, coming from different regions of the country and examined in the first-class consultation facility at the Children's Nutrition Center in Antimano (Centro de Atencion Nutricional Infantil Antimano-CANIA). The purpose of the study was to determine the socioeconomic and family aspects associated with the obese children and adolescents attending CANIA. The SPSS 9.0 program was used to process data. Frequency distributions and chi squared statistics were analyzed to test association among the variables. The level of significance was 95%. Findings showed that most heads of the families of obese children were also obese; extremely poor families and children over 15 years old revealed a more sedentary lifestyle; lastly, the mothers generally did not participate in deciding on the food purchases and had no notions whatsoever about balanced nutrition that would allow them to plan the purchase of food. These aspects arise as keys to be approached and resolved by social workers during their interventions aimed at favoring the nutritional recovery of obese children and their families.