Association of parental diabetes with overweight in Iranian children and adolescents

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the association of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents with parental diabetes. A total of 9312 school children aged 6–17 years in Rasht, northern Iran was studied. Data on age, skipping breakfast, physical activity parental and educational levels were collected. Parental current body weight, height, age, current medications and being diabetic were self reported. The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity in these school children was 14.5% and 5.6%, respectively. Overweigh and obesity was more prevalent among children living in diabetic families than non-diabetic families (22.0% vs.14.0% P<0.0001). Results of logistic regression analysis showed that risk of overweight was higher in children and adolescents whose either parents were diabetic OR=2.02(1.5–2.6) after controlling for other variables including maternal educational levels, parental obesity and skipping breakfast. This study showed that children and adolescents with diabetic parents are more likely to be overweight/obesity than children and adolescents with non diabetic parents.