Slide Presentation of the 2007 Annual Meeting of AHRQ

Parental interest and confidence to change their child's physical activity

Interest/Confidence	Normal Weight N=1045	At Risk Weight (BMI 85-94%) N=260	Overweight (BMI>95%) N=278	Chi Sq P value
1 or more Activity risks	61%	70%	78%	<.001
Among families where at least one physical activity risk is present( n=1032)
% Interested in making changes now for child to be more active	36%	21%	43%	<.001
Among parents interested in making changes for child to be more active now (n= 269)
% Who considered PA change important (7-10)	62%	50%	63%	ns
% With high confidence (7-10) in making PA Change	62%	55%	45%	ns (.059)

Notes:

Take Home Message:
Families of young children are less engaged in making changes in their child's physical activity than nutrition. This is shown by low perceived importance and interest in starting to make changes.
When interested, nearly half of all families lack confidence they can make changes for their child to be more active.
Among overweight children, most parents think that changing their child's eating is very important, yet less than half of these parents of overweight children have confidence that they can make changes for their child to eat healthier.