Measured Parental Weight Status and Familial Socio-Economic Status Correlates with Childhood Overweight and Obesity at Age 9
Open Access
- 17 August 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 7 (8), e43503
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0043503
Abstract
Parental 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. Cross 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. Parental 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.This publication has 38 references indexed in Scilit:
- Socioeconomic Patterning of Childhood Overweight Status in EuropeInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2012
- Relationship between 8/9-yr-old school children BMI, parents' BMI and educational level: a cross sectional surveyNutrition Journal, 2011
- Irish exceptionalism? local food environments and dietary qualityJournal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2011
- Social, economic and demographic correlates of overweight and obesity in primary-school children: preliminary data from the Healthy Growth StudyPublic Health Nutrition, 2010
- Model of the home food environment pertaining to childhood obesityNutrition Reviews, 2008
- Prevalence of overweight and obesity on the island of Ireland: results from the North South Survey of Children's Height, Weight and Body Mass Index, 2002BMC Public Health, 2007
- Overweight, obesity and girth of Australian preschoolers: prevalence and socio-economic correlatesInternational Journal of Obesity, 2006
- Predicting obesity in early adulthood from childhood and parental obesityInternational Journal of Obesity, 2003
- Food and activity preferences in children of lean and obese parentsInternational Journal of Obesity, 2001
- Family lifestyle and parental body mass index as predictors of body mass index in Australian children: a longitudinal studyInternational Journal of Obesity, 2001