Strong correlation between obesity parents and children in the middle age – What shows new research

Individuals have a sixfold chance of living with obesity in the middle age, although both their parents lived with that age, as he finds new research to be presented at the European Conference on Obesity in Venice. Having one parent obesity triples the odds. “Previous research shows a strong correlation between the obesity situation of parents and their children, but few studies have investigated whether this intergenerational transmission of obesity continues after puberty and during adult life,” says chief researcher, Marie Mikelsen, from the Department of Community Medicine of the Arctic University of UiT, Norway. “We were interested in how the parents’ body mass index relates to the body mass index of their offspring, when the offspring have reached adulthood and lived away from their home for a long time,” he adds. The study used data from Tromso Study, an ongoing population-based health study in Norway. Individuals aged 40-59 from the seventh phase of the study, conducted in 2015-2016, and data on their parents, when at the same age, from the fourth phase of the study, were included. They resulted in 2,068 triads of parents and their offspring. Data analysis showed a strong correlation between the body mass index of parents in the mean age and the body mass index of their offspring at the same age. When both parents lived with middle – age obesity, their offspring had a six – year – old chance of living with middle – age obesity themselves compared to adults who both parents had normal weight. The chances were also increased when only one parent had obesity. When only the mother had obesity, the offspring had 3.44 times higher chances of obesity, while the corresponding number for fathers was 3.74.