IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i21p7897-d435983.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Overweight and Obesity in Children of Immigrant Versus Native Parents: Exploring a Local Setting in Portugal

Author

Listed:
  • Susana Moreira

    (InHealth Consulting, Maputo 1100, Mozambique)

  • Luzia Gonçalves

    (Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM), Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1349-008 Lisboa, Portugal
    Centro de Estatística e Aplicações da Universidade de Lisboa (CEAUL), 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal)

Abstract

In Portugal, the majority of immigrants come from Portuguese-speaking countries. Among children, overweight and obesity are serious public health concerns, but a few studies include children with immigrant background. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity and risk of abdominal obesity in school-age children and to explore potential determinants, considering the origin of the children’s parents (both mother and father are non-Portuguese, only one Portuguese, and both are Portuguese). A cross-sectional study included a random sample of 789 children (5–11 years old, 49.2% of males and 50.8% female) attending public primary schools in Barreiro, district of Setubal, Portugal. Fieldwork occurred from 20th April to 3rd July 2009. Data concerning socioeconomic, eating habits, and sports outside school were obtained through a questionnaire applied to the children’s person in charge. Anthropometric measures were collected by certified technicians. One-third of the children presented overweight and obesity (33.7%, 95% CI [30.0; 37.7]) and risk of abdominal obesity (16.4%, 95% CI [13.6; 19.7]) without differences according to parents’ origin. Children with immigrant background presented higher consumption of low-priced, high-sugar, and high-fat foods, with a worse situation for girls. Females from both non-Portuguese parents also practiced less sports outside school than those where one or two parents are Portuguese. Thus, promoting and monitoring a healthy diet and physical activity in this group should be prioritized in this local setting.

Suggested Citation

  • Susana Moreira & Luzia Gonçalves, 2020. "Overweight and Obesity in Children of Immigrant Versus Native Parents: Exploring a Local Setting in Portugal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-15, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:21:p:7897-:d:435983
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/7897/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/7897/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pedro Moreira & Susana Santos & Patrícia Padrão & Tânia Cordeiro & Mariana Bessa & Hugo Valente & Renata Barros & Vitor Teixeira & Vanessa Mitchell & Carla Lopes & André Moreira, 2010. "Food Patterns According to Sociodemographics, Physical Activity, Sleeping and Obesity in Portuguese Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-18, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joaquín Moncho & Alba Martínez-García & Eva Mª Trescastro-López, 2022. "Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in Children of Immigrant Origin in Spain: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-13, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pouya Saeedi & Amin Shavandi & Paula M.L. Skidmore, 2019. "What Do We Know about Diet and Markers of Cardiovascular Health in Children: A Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-22, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:21:p:7897-:d:435983. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.