Journal of primary health care
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INTRODUCTION Accurate parental perception of their child's weight is poor. Accuracy may be influenced by differences in ethnicity but this is currently unknown. AIM To determine whether agreement between parental perception of child weight status and actual child weight status differs according to ethnic group (NZ European, Māori, Pacific, Asian), and to investigate whether it is influenced by various demographic and behavioural factors. ⋯ Overall, agreement between measured body mass index and parental perception was not related to ethnic group, child sex and age, maternal age and education, and household deprivation (k ranged from 0.16 to 0.47). However, agreement about weight status was higher in parents who reported higher levels of restrictive feeding than in parents who reported less restriction (P < 0.01) but agreement was only fair. CONCLUSION Agreement between parental perception and actual weight status was fair and did not differ between the ethnic groups examined.