Abstract
PurposeThe main aim of this study was to examine weight associations between parents and offspring at two time points: 1995–97 and 2006–08, taking into account body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference.MethodsThe study included 8425 parent-offspring trios who participated in the population based Health Study of Nord Trøndelag (the HUNT Study), Norway, at either the HUNT2 (1995–97) or the HUNT3 (2006–08) survey. We used linear mixed effects models with siblings clustered within mothers to analyze the associations between 1) parental grouped BMI and offspring BMI z-scores and 2) parental grouped waist circumference and offspring waist circumference z-scores.ResultsAdolescent and adult overweight and obesity were higher in 2006–08 than in 1995–97, with the greatest increase observed in waist circumference. Both mother’s and father’s BMI and waist circumference were strongly associated with corresponding measures in offspring. Compared with both parents being normal weight (BMI <25 kg/m2), having two overweight or obese parents (BMI ≥25 kg/m2) was associated with a higher offspring BMI z-score of 0.76 (95% CI; 0.65, 0.87) and 0.64 (95% CI; 0.48, 0.80) in daughters, and 0.76 (95% CI; 0.65, 0.87) and 0.69 (95% CI; 0.53, 0.80) in sons, in 1995–97 and 2006–08 respectively. Offspring with one parent being overweight/obese had BMI z-scores of approximately half of offspring with two parents categorized as overweight/obese. The results of the waist circumference based analyses did not differ substantially from the BMI based analyses.ConclusionsParental overweight was strongly positively associated with offspring weight both in 1995–97 and 2006–08 where both parents being overweight/obese gave the largest effect. This seemingly stable association, strongly address the importance of public health initiatives towards preventing obesity in parents of both sexes to decrease further obesity expansion in offspring.
Highlights
The global worry concerning the extent of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents [1, 2] needs drastic preventive measures
Over several decades increases in both body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference have been observed across all age groups and an outstanding rise in waist circumference has been seen in adults [7,8,9] with the greatest increase detected in the youngest adults (20–29 years)
Mean age (16.0 ± 0.1) in both sexes were similar for adolescents at both time points, while mean age in mothers and fathers were slightly lower in 1995–97 than in 2006–08
Summary
The global worry concerning the extent of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents [1, 2] needs drastic preventive measures. Increase in central obesity in children and adolescents in the period 1977 to 1997 was seen in a UK study [10], while both a US study and data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (K-NHANES) in Korea, reported the opposite with an abdominal obesity decrease in children and adolescents during the last decade [11, 12]. The understanding of this divergence which is most likely related to the environment or the effects of gene x environment interactions are important to explore. Both issues are important matters to fully understand the obesity development and need further investigation
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