title: Influence of parental obesity on the physical constitution of preschool children in Japan.
abstract: The objective of this study was to assess the influence of parental obesity on the physical constitution of preschool children. A total of 3187 children aged between 1-6 years and their parents were studied. A child whose per cent obesity (%OB; per cent overweight for age, height and sex) was greater than 15%, and a parent whose body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) was greater than the 95th percentile were defined to be obese (27.40 and 25.97 for a father and a mother, respectively). We found that the incidence of obesity in children with obese fathers (11.5%) was significantly higher than in those with non-obese fathers (6.2%), and a similar difference was obtained between children with obese mothers (14.5%) and with non-obese mothers (6.2%), respectively. The incidence of obesity in children was 6.0% if both parents were non-obese; this incidence rose to 22.7% if one parent was obese, and to 30.8% if both were obese. The %OB of children was more markedly correlated with the mothers' BMI (r = 0.219) than the fathers' BMI (r = 0.165). The %OB of children correlated significantly with fathers' BMI, but only from the age of 3-6 years, whereas mothers' BMI correlated from the age of 1-6 years. We conclude that parental obesity was of significance in determining the development of juvenile obesity even in the preschool period.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Niigata University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawasaki
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uchiyama
mesh_terms: D001824:Body Constitution; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D010290:Parents