Parental attitude towards healthy weight screening/counselling for their children by dentists

Objective: to obtain information about parental attitude towards healthy weight screening/counselling during dental visits of their children.methods: the study was conducted at the king saud university college of dentistry interns clinic at darraiyah university campus,riyadh,saudi arabia,from october to december 2013,and comprised a sample of 6-to-11-year-old children and their parents. a questionnaire was used to record height/weight data,history of body weight counselling and parental opinion regarding healthy weight screening and counselling. spss 17 was used for data analysis.results: of the 61 children,35(57.4%) were boys and 26(42.6%) were girls. the overall mean age was 7.9±1.7 years (range: 6-11 years). besides,40(65.6%) children were accompanied by their fathers and 21(34.4%) by their mothers. overall 13(21.3%) children were overweight and 7(11.5%) obese. moreover,54(88.5%) parents found the healthy weight screening and counselling for their children valuable,whereas 46(75.4%) endorsed the screening/counselling during the dental visit of their children.conclusions: most parents found healthy weight screening and counselling to be valuable,and endorsed its administration during dental visits for their children.