Determinantes comportamentais em crianças e adolescentes com diagnóstico de obesidade

Abstract

Childhood obesity is a public health problem throughout the world, considered the most common diseasein children. Healthy eating behaviors and attitudes are the result of a long process of socialization anddevelopment, learned in family and school, subject to the influences of peers, experiences of citizenshipand information obtained through the media. The acquisition is conducted in a learning process, fromearly ages, important on prevention of nutritional diseases, including obesity. The diagnosis of obesity inchildren/adolescents is associated with changes in eating behavior, resulting in greater difficulty in integrationin family and social environment, leading to some psychological or psychiatric changes such asdepression, anxiety, low self-esteem, body image dissatisfaction, eating disorders, among others. Increasedknowledge about the psychosocial and behavioral determinants involving children and adolescents with adiagnosis of overweight/obesity is important for establishing new strategies of intervention, key to successfultreatment.