Preventing and treating childhood obesity: time to target fathers

To examine the long-term effects of having one overweight or obese parent on child weight status and determine whether these effects vary according to parent sex. Prospective study: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Two-parent families (N=3285) from the LSAC were included if height a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International Journal of Obesity 2012-01, Vol.36 (1), p.12-15
Main Authors: FREEMAN, E, FLETCHER, R, COLLINS, C. E, MORGAN, P. J, BURROWS, T, CALLISTER, R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Analysis
Australia - epidemiology
Biological and medical sciences
Body mass
Body Mass Index
Body weight
Care and treatment
Child
Child, Preschool
Children
Children & youth
Diagnosis
Families & family life
Fathers
Female
General aspects
Health care
Height
Humans
intervention
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Medical sciences
Metabolic diseases
Mothers
Obesity
Obesity - epidemiology
Obesity - etiology
Obesity - prevention & control
Obesity in children
Odds Ratio
Overweight
Parents & parenting
Prevalence
Prevention
Prevention and actions
Preventive health
Prospective Studies
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Questionnaires
Risk Assessment
Self report
Socioeconomic Factors
Strategy
Weight
Weight control
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Summary:To examine the long-term effects of having one overweight or obese parent on child weight status and determine whether these effects vary according to parent sex. Prospective study: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Two-parent families (N=3285) from the LSAC were included if height and weight data were available for both parents and their child at the 2004 and 2008 time points. Child weight status category (healthy, overweight, obese) in 2008 when the child was aged 8-9 years. Regression modelling was used to investigate how self-reported parent weight status in 2004 influenced measured child weight status 4 years later. Parent body mass index (BMI) was significantly correlated with child BMI, but there was no evidence of sex-specific associations between parent and child BMI correlations. The results from the regression analysis showed that having an overweight or obese father, but a healthy weight mother, significantly increased the odds of child obesity (odds ratio: 4.18, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01-17.33 and odds ratio: 14.88, 95% CI: 2.61-84.77, respectively), but the reverse scenario (overweight or obese mother with a healthy weight father) was not a significant predictor of child overweight or obesity (odds ratio: 2.52, 95% CI: 0.38-16.71 and odds ratio: 2.56, 95% CI: 0.31-21.26, respectively). Children with overweight or obese fathers are at a higher risk of becoming obese. This suggests that interventions are urgently required to test the efficacy of treating overweight fathers as a key strategy for childhood obesity prevention and/or treatment.
ISSN:0307-0565
1476-5497
DOI:10.1038/ijo.2011.198