title: Transmission of energy-saving efficiency from obese parents to their offspring: the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-2011.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Concerns of a growing obesity epidemic have increased since the association between obesity in parents and that in offspring was reported. However, the evidence regarding whether the energy-saving efficiency of obese parents is conveyed to their offspring and the duration of the expression of such transmitted efficiency is limited.
  
  
  METHODS
  We included 7647 matching sets of parent-offspring trios from South Korea. Multiple linear regression models were performed to estimate the energy-saving efficiency, as assessed by the associations between energy intake and obesity-related indices (waist-to-height ratio, waist circumference and body mass index z-score), and to compare the energy-saving efficiency of offspring of obese and non-obese parents. All analyses were based on a complex sample design and were stratified by gender and age.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identified a parental influence on obesity, that is, the more obese the parent, the higher the obesity-related indices of their offspring, in both genders and all age groups. The energy-saving efficiency of child offspring was highest when both parents were obese and lowest when both were non-obese; this difference was significant (P<0.05) with regard to the energy-saving efficiency of all types of intake studied, except fat. However, the energy-saving efficiency of obese and non-obese parents did not differ when their offspring were adolescents and adults.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The critical window for transmission of energy-saving efficiency is limited to childhood. These findings suggest that children of obese parents should be more emphatically advised to maintain a balanced diet and to engage in regular physical activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.|Environmental Health Center, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Y-C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Hong
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D009765:Obesity / Q000378:metabolism*; D010290:Parents; D056910:Republic of Korea; D055105:Waist Circumference; D065927:Waist-Height Ratio; D055815:Young Adult