title: Parents' willingness to pay for the prevention of childhood overweight and obesity.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine parental willingness-to-pay (WTP) for childhood obesity prevention.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional data from the follow-up measurements (2011) of a health promotion programme in German primary schools. Data collection included anthropometric measurements of children and self-administered questionnaires for parents, including WTP assessment. Mann-Whitney U-Test was used for differences between groups, and regression analysis to identify factors associated with general WTP and amount of WTP.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From 1 534 parents, 97.8% considered overweight/obesity to be serious public health problems. A general WTP to reduce the incidence of childhood overweight/obesity by half, was declared by 48.8%. Parents of overweight/obese children showed with 61.4%, significantly more frequently, their general WTP than the others with 47.2% (p = 0.001). Mean WTP was <euro>23.04 (99% confidence interval (CI) [22.45; 23.75]) per month. Parents of centrally obese children showed significantly higher WTP than parents of the other children (p = 0.001). General WTP and the amount of WTP were associated with the central obesity of the child, migration status and household income. Additionally, general WTP was associated with maternal obesity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nearly half of the parents were willing to invest in prevention of obesity. The general WTP significantly occurs more often and with higher amount in affected parents.
authors.affiliation: Division of Sports and Rehabilitation Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine II, Ulm University Medical Centre, Frauensteige 6, Haus 58/33, D-89075, Ulm, Germany, dorothea.kesztyues@uni-ulm.de.
authors.forename: Dorothea
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kesztyüs
authors.forename: Romy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lauer
authors.forename: Anja C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Schreiber
authors.forename: Tibor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kesztyüs
authors.forename: Reinhold
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kilian
authors.forename: Jürgen M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Steinacker