Peer-reviewed article
Parental Engagement in Infant Obesity Preventative Interventions: Maternal Awareness, Barriers, and Facilitators Identified in a Cross-Sectional Survey.
Gelmini A, Tellegen CL, Morawska A ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study surveyed 240 mothers of infants under 2 years old to understand their awareness of infant obesity and willingness to engage in prevention programs. Most mothers recognized that overweight can affect infants but thought excess weight only becomes a concern after age 2, and they worried more about underweight than overweight. Mothers were open to parenting programs focused on promoting infant health rather than preventing obesity specifically. The findings suggest ways to design infant obesity prevention interventions that better align with parental concerns and preferences.
Key points
- Close to 1 in 10 children under age 2 gain excess weight and can remain overweight throughout life
- Most mothers were aware overweight can affect infants but believed it only becomes an issue after 2 years of age
- Mothers were more concerned about underweight than overweight in their infants
- Mothers were open to parenting programs but preferred content about promoting babies' health over feeding and obesity prevention topics
- Mothers preferred advertisements emphasizing positive parenting and health promotion rather than obesity prevention messaging
Limitations
The study provides no information about the representativeness of the sample or whether findings apply across different geographic regions, socioeconomic groups, or cultural contexts. It cannot tell us what interventions actually work to change parental behaviour or improve infant health outcomes.
Abstract
Objectives Although close to 1 in 10 children under age 2 gain excess weight and can remain overweight throughout life, engaging parents in early preventative interventions is challenging because they may not recognize the issue of overweight in infancy. This study aimed to inform knowledge about maternal perceptions of infant obesity, to investigate topics of interest for program content and identify barriers and facilitators to parental engagement. Methods Mothers (N = 240) of 0 to 24-month-old children completed an online cross-sectional survey. Results The majority of mothers were aware that overweight can affect infants, however most considered that excess weight becomes an issue only after 2 years of age and believed that parents should be more worried about their child being underweight than overweight. Mothers were also open to participating in a parenting program, were mostly interested in program content about promoting babies' health but not feeding, and preferred advertisements for positive parenting and promoting babies' health rather than preventing infant obesity. Conclusions for practice These findings can help to develop effective strategies to enhance parental engagement and optimize parenting interventions in infant obesity prevention research.