title: Risk of child obesity from parental obesity: analysis of repeat national cross-sectional surveys.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the potential to reduce childhood obesity through targeted interventions of overweight households.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional nationally representative samples of the Scottish population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Households in Scotland during 2008 and 2009.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 1651 households with parents and children aged 2-15 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  The WHO cut-off points for adult body mass index (BMI): overweight (25 to <30 kg/m2) and obese (≥30 kg/m2). Overweight and obesity in childhood respectively defined as a BMI 85th to <95th percentile and ≥95th percentile based on 1990 reference centiles.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-two percent (600/1849) of children and 75% (966/1290) of adults were overweight or obese. Seventy-five percent (1606/2128) of all children lived with a parent who was overweight or obese. Among obese children, 58% (185/318) lived with an obese parent. The population attributable risk percentage of child obesity associated with parental obesity was 32.5%. Targeting obese households would require substantial falls in adult weight and need to reach 38% of all children; it might achieve a reduction in the prevalence of childhood obesity of 14% in these households (from 26% to 12%). Targeting parents with BMI ≥ 40 might reduce the overall prevalence of child obesity by 9%. Such an intervention would require large weight loss, consistent with approaches used for morbidly obese adults; it would involve 4% of all children and lead to a reduction in the prevalence of obesity in these households from 57% to 16%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Family-based interventions for obesity would be most efficiently targeted at obese children whose parents are morbidly obese.
authors.affiliation: West of Scotland Cancer Surveillance Unit, Public Health Research Group, Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McLoone
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Morrison
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D010290:Parents; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015995:Prevalence; D012306:Risk; D012606:Scotland / Q000453:epidemiology