Parental obesity is associated with higher odds of adult children becoming obese

If your parents lived with obesity at that age, you are six times more likely to live with obesity in middle age, says the European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2024, Venice, May 12-15). This is revealed in a new study published in . If one parent has obesity, her chances are three times greater.

Previous research has shown a strong association between obesity status in parents and children, but this study investigated whether this intergenerational transmission of obesity continues past adolescence and into adulthood. There are very few. ”

Mari Mikkelsen, Principal Researcher, Department of Community Medicine, Norwegian UiT Arctic University, Tromsø, Norway

“We were interested in how parents' BMI relates to their children's BMI when children reach adulthood and live away from home for long periods of time.”

Mikkelsen and colleagues used data from the Tromsø Study, an ongoing population-based health study.

All children who were between 40 and 59 years of age when they participated in the Tromsø Study Wave 7 (conducted in 2015-2016) and whose parents participated in the Tromsø Study Wave 4 (1994-1995) when they were 40 years old. The individual analysis included 59 years and yielded 2,068 parent-child trios.

Analysis of height and weight data showed a strong association between parents' BMI in middle age (40 to 59 years) and the BMI of their offspring at the same age.

Children's BMI increased by 0.8 units (1 standard deviation) for every 4-unit increase in maternal BMI and 0.74 units for every 3.1-unit increase in father's BMI.

There was also a strong association between parents' obesity status in midlife and their children's obesity status at the same age.

If both parents lived with obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m3)²) In midlife, their offspring were six times more likely to live with obesity into midlife than adults whose parents were in the normal weight range (BMI 18.5–24.9kg/m2)²).

The odds also increased when only one parent was obese. If only the mother lived with obesity, the children themselves were 3.44 times more likely to live with obesity. Her father's corresponding number was 3.74.

Results were adjusted for child gender, parent and child age, education, and physical activity level.

Ms Mikkelsen said: 'Previous research has shown that several factors contribute to shared obesity status in parents and children. Genes can influence our susceptibility to weight gain. “It plays an important role in the development of obesity and influences how we respond to obese environments where weight gain can occur.” Easy to eat unhealthy.

“Studies have shown that when children live together under the same roof, they tend to adopt similar eating and exercise habits as their parents, and as a result, have similar BMIs.

“Obesity in childhood, especially in adolescence, tends to persist into early adulthood, and we wondered whether it might continue into middle age and beyond.

“We found that this is indeed the case. Children whose parents lived with obesity are likely to live with obesity themselves by the time they are in their 40s and 50s, long after they have left home.” They are far more likely to survive.”

“Our analysis cannot prove whether this is genetic or environmental, but it is likely a combination of the two.

“Whatever the explanation, our finding that intergenerational obesity can persist into adulthood highlights the importance of treating and preventing obesity, which contributes significantly to poor health and premature death.

“This study also lays the foundation for research into the factors that influence the intergenerational transmission of obesity and can be targeted to prevent lifelong obesity in offspring.”