MIAMI.- Children with parents who have been overweight are six times more likely to suffer from obesity during adulthood, according to a recent study by scientists at the Arctic University of Norway (ITU).
Overweight and obesity are an abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that is harmful to health and causes other conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, high levels of triglycerides, and coronary heart disease.
In the United States, currently about 40% of adults and 18.5% of children and adolescents suffer from obesity. In less than two decades, the obesity rate among American adults increased 30%, while among minors it rose to 33%, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ).
This research, which will be presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2024), which will be held in Venice in May, showed a strong association between obesity in parents at the ages of 40 and 59 and overweight in their children. same age.
“These findings demonstrate that the established connection between childhood obesity and parental weight does not disappear as the child grows,” said lead author Mari Mikkelsen, from the Department of Community Medicine at the Arctic University of Norway.
To conduct the study, Mikkelsen’s team evaluated weight and height data from 2,068 parent-child trios, collected over 59 years of analysis from the Tromso Study, an ongoing population health study.
All children were between 40 and 59 years old when they participated in the seventh phase of the Tromso Study carried out between 2015 and 2016, whose parents participated in the fourth phase of the same study between 1994 and 1995 when they were between 40 and 59 years old.
The results were adjusted for the sex of the children and for the age, education and level of physical activity of the parents and children, according to the report.
How does it influence?
The findings revealed that a father’s body mass index (BMI) directly influenced his child’s BMI. The children’s BMI increased by 0.8 units for every 4-unit increase in the mother’s BMI and by 0.74 units for every 3.1-unit increase in the father’s BMI.
BMI is a simple indicator of the relationship between weight and height that is frequently used to identify overweight and obesity in adults.
Furthermore, the researchers found that when both parents lived with excess weight (a BMI of 30 kg) in middle age, the risk of their children developing obesity when they reached adulthood tripled, compared to people with parents who were overweight. They remained in the normal weight range (a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 kg).
On the other hand, the odds also increased when only one parent had noticeable weight gain. While when only the mother was obese, the offspring were 3.44 times more likely to live with obesity, and for the parents it was 3.74.
Genetics, an important factor
The experts said that genes are one of several factors that play an important role, because they can affect susceptibility to weight gain “and influence the response to environments that can lead to obesity in which it can be easy to eat.” in an unhealthy way.”
“Some studies also speculate that children tend to develop similar dietary and exercise habits as their parents when they all live together under the same roof, resulting in similar BMI status,” they added.
They asserted that obesity in childhood and especially in adolescence usually affects the individual until early adulthood, “so it is possible that it also does so until middle age, long after having left home.”
They specified that this analysis cannot establish whether this is due to genes or the environment. “However, it is most likely a combination of both.”
Treatment and prevention
According to the group of scientists, the results that reflect that obesity is transmitted between generations and can persist into adulthood “underscore the importance of treating and preventing obesity, a condition that contributes significantly to poor health and premature death.”
Finally, they maintained that the work lays the foundation for the investigation of factors that influence the intergenerational transmission of obesity and that can be addressed to prevent children and adolescents with parents affected by obesity from spending their entire lives being victims of this disease.
@Lydr05
Source: With information from the Arctic University of Norway and Health Day
