Association of Children and Adolescents Obesity with Parental Weight Status: the Childhood and Adolescence Surveillance and PreventIon of Adult Noncommunicable Disease-IV Study

Background: Several disorders are associated with child overweight. Parental weight status might predict overweight and/or obesity of the child. This study aims to assess the association between children and adolescents body mass index (BMI) with parental weight status.Material and methods: This cross-sectional nationwide study was conducted in 2011-2012 among 6-18 years students living in 30 provinces of Iran. Socio-demographic information were collected. Student's weight was according to the World Health Organization (WHO) reference curves. Parental self-reported BMI was calculated as underweight (BMI<18.5), normal-weight (18.5obesity was significantly associated with parental obesity in both genders. The odds of being obese for boys who had obese parents was 2.79, compared to other adolescents (OR 2.79; 95%IC 2.44, 3.20), and this figure for girls was (OR 3.46; 95%IC 3.03, 3.94). The odds of being overweight among boys and girls (OR 1.70; 95%IC 1.15, 1.92) and (OR 2.00; 95%IC 1.77, 2.25) with obese parents compared to their peers with normal weight parents.Conclusion: The positive associations of children's overweight with parental obesity underscore the importance of development preventive strategies that target both children and parents. These results highlight the importance of the shared family environment as a multi-factorial contributor to the child overweight and obesity epidemic.

Keywords:

Overweight , obesity , body mass index , children and adolescents , parental BMI