Family structure and childhood obesity: results of the IDEFICS Project

Abstract

Objective: To analyse the association between family structure and adiposity in children. Design: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of the IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of dietary-and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants) study cohort. Setting: Primary schools and kindergartens. Subjects: Children (n 12 350; aged 7?9 (SD 1?8) years) for the cross-sectional analysis and children (n 5236; at baseline: normal weight, aged 5?9 (SD 1?8) years) for the longitudinal study underwent anthropometry. Family structure was analysed as (i) number and type of cohabiting adults and (ii) number of siblings. Results: In the cross-sectional analysis, after controlling for covariates, children living with grandparents had significantly higher BMI Z-score than those Conclusions: The study suggests that an independent association between family structure and childhood obesity exists.

The Effect of Socioeconomic Status, Number of Siblings and Parental of Education on Children’ Body Mass Index at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Cross Sectional Study

“…Over the 2-year follow-up, the risk of overweight/obesity was significantly lower with the higher number of siblings living in the household [23]. A study conducted in Santiago included 652 children, found higher number of siblings was protective (6-68% less risk for 2 siblings compared with no sibling and 10-73% less for ≥ 3 siblings) [24]. Several studies in Japan have investigated the relationship between the number of siblings and childhood overweight.…”

Association between grandparent coresidence and weight change among first‐grade Japanese children

“…Families can exert a strong influence on children's diets, physical activities, and sedentary behaviours . Much research has focused on at‐risk parental characteristics and revealed that low parental socioeconomic status (SES) and lone‐parenthood are associated with increased risk of overweight and obesity in children . In addition to parental influence, an increasing number of studies have focused on grandparental influence as three‐generation family households become more prevalent or remain common worldwide in response to the rise of divorce, poverty, and female labour force participation …”

Association between family structure and food group intake in children

“…Some studies indicated that children in single parent family, reconstituted families, or family without patents were more likely to have unhealthy eating habits such as irregular breakfast consumption, eating less vegetable, and drinking alcohol compared to children living with both parents [7,8,9,10]. Also, there are several studies which suggest a positive association between child health including obesity, asthma and family structure in single-mother families and custodial grandparent families [11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. …”

“…While several studies have investigated an association of family structure with children's eating habit, health and well-being [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17], studies that have examined the association with children's food intake are scarce. Diversity and adequacy of foods which compose meals should also be taken into account in assessment of nutritional status [18].…”