Abstract
BackgroundParental obesity is a predominant risk factor for childhood obesity. Family factors including socio-economic status (SES) play a role in determining parent weight. It is essential to unpick how shared family factors impact on child weight. This study aims to investigate the association between measured parent weight status, familial socio-economic factors and the risk of childhood obesity at age 9.Methodology/Principal FindingsCross sectional analysis of the first wave (2008) of the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study. GUI is a nationally representative study of 9-year-old children (N = 8,568). Schools were selected from the national total (response rate 82%) and age eligible children (response rate 57%) were invited to participate. Children and their parents had height and weight measurements taken using standard methods. Data were reweighted to account for the sampling design. Childhood overweight and obesity prevalence were calculated using International Obesity Taskforce definitions. Multinomial logistic regression examined the association between parent weight status, indicators of SES and child weight. Overall, 25% of children were either overweight (19.3%) or obese (6.6%). Parental obesity was a significant predictor of child obesity. Of children with normal weight parents, 14.4% were overweight or obese whereas 46.2% of children with obese parents were overweight or obese. Maternal education and household class were more consistently associated with a child being in a higher body mass index category than household income. Adjusted regression indicated that female gender, one parent family type, lower maternal education, lower household class and a heavier parent weight status significantly increased the odds of childhood obesity.Conclusions/SignificanceParental weight appears to be the most influential factor driving the childhood obesity epidemic in Ireland and is an independent predictor of child obesity across SES groups. Due to the high prevalence of obesity in parents and children, population based interventions are required.
Highlights
The rising prevalence of childhood obesity is a major public health concern worldwide
Ethical approval was granted by the Research Ethics Committee (REC) of the Health Research Board based in Dublin, Ireland
Within each of the socio-economic status (SES) indicators, there was an inverse relationship between SES and the prevalence of child overweight and obese. Those ranked lower within each of the socio-economic variables were significantly more likely to be overweight or obese than those ranked at a higher position
Summary
The rising prevalence of childhood obesity is a major public health concern worldwide. Parental obesity is well established as an important risk factor for childhood obesity [2,3,4,5,6]. The relationship between parent and child weight is complex as it is a consequence of both shared genetic and environmental factors [10,11,12,13]. Socio-economic status (SES) is an important determinant of the shared family environment. Parental obesity is a predominant risk factor for childhood obesity. Factors including socio-economic status (SES) play a role in determining parent weight. It is essential to unpick how shared family factors impact on child weight. This study aims to investigate the association between measured parent weight status, familial socio-economic factors and the risk of childhood obesity at age 9
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