title: Parental marital status and childhood overweight and obesity in Norway: a nationally representative cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Sociodemographic changes in Norway and other western industrialised countries, including family structure and an increasing proportion of cohabiting and divorced parents, might affect the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity issues. We aimed to examine whether parental marital status was associated with general and abdominal obesity among children. We also sought to explore whether the associations differed by gender.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional.
  
  
  METHODS
  127 primary schools across Norway.
  
  
  METHODS
  3166 third graders (mean age 8.3 years) participating in the nationally representative Norwegian Child Growth Study in 2010.
  
  
  METHODS
  Height, weight and waist circumference were objectively measured. The main outcome measures were general overweight (including obesity; body mass index ≥25 kg/m(2)) using International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) cut-offs and abdominal obesity (waist-to-height ratio ≥0.5) by gender and parental marital status. Prevalence ratios, adjusted for possible confounders, were calculated by log-binomial regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  General overweight (including obesity) was 1.54 (95% CI 1.21 to 1.95) times more prevalent among children of divorced parents compared with children of married parents, and the corresponding prevalence ratio for abdominal obesity was 1.89 (95% CI 1.35 to 2.65). Formal tests of the interaction term parental marital status by gender were not statistically significant. However, in gender-specific analyses the association between parental marital status and adiposity measures was only statistically significant in boys (p=0.04 for general overweight (including obesity) and p=0.01 for abdominal obesity). The estimates were robust against adjustment for maternal education, family country background and current area of residence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  General and abdominal obesities were more prevalent among children of divorced parents. This study provides valuable information by focusing on societal changes in order to identify vulnerable groups.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway The Morbid Obesity Centre, Vestfold Hospital Trust, Tønsberg, Norway.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Biehl
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Ragnhild
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hovengen
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Else-Karin
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Grøholt
authors.affiliation: The Morbid Obesity Centre, Vestfold Hospital Trust, Tønsberg, Norway Faculty of Medicine, Department of Endocrinology, Morbid Obesity and Preventive Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Jøran
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hjelmesæth
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Bjørn Heine
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Strand
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway Faculty of Medicine, Department of Community Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Haakon E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Meyer
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D056128:Obesity, Abdominal / Q000453:epidemiology; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010290:Parents; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Epidemiology; Public Health