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Food Insecurity And Child And Parent/Caretaker Overweight/Obesity In A Rural, Appalachian Mississippi Community, Sydney Antolini

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the differences in parent/caretaker body mass index (BMI) and parent/caretaker-reported child overweight/obesity by food security status in a rural, Appalachian, Mississippi community, as well as the relationship of parent/caretaker BMI and parent/caretaker-reported child overweight/obesity to food security status. A cross-sectional survey of elementary school parents/caretakers recruited at three elementary schools in an economically-distressed Appalachian, Mississippi county was conducted. Parent/caretaker BMI was calculated from self-reported height and weight. Caretaker-reported child overweight/obesity was determined using caretaker report of a medical professional identifying child overweight/obesity within the past year. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS (version 23, 2015) to assess …