Parental overweight, socioeconomic status and high birth weight are the major determinants of overweight and obesity in 5–7 y-old children: baseline data of the Kiel Obesity Prevention Study (KOPS)

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:To identify the major risk factors of overweight and obesity in prepubertal children. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: In all, 32 primary schools in Kiel (248 000 inhabitants), northwest Germany. SUBJECTS: A total of 2631 5-7-y-old German children and their parents. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Weight status, socio-economic status (SES), parental overweight, dietary intake, activity, inactivity and further determinants (birth weight, breast feeding, nutritional status of siblings) of the children. RESULTS: The prevalence of overweight (Z90th BMI percentile of reference) was 9.2% in boys and 11.2% in girls, respectively. Considered univariately, family-, environment-and development-related determinants showed some relations to overweight and obesity. In multivariate analyses parental overweight, a low SES as well as a high birth weight were the strongest independent risk factors of overweight and obesity in children. Additionally, there were sex-specific risk factors: parental smoking and single households were risk factors in boys, whereas a low activity was associated with obesity in girls. Birth weight was associated with obesity, but not with overweight. The prevalence of obesity reached 29.2% in boys and 33.4% in girls with all the three main risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Overweight families of low SES have the highest risk of overweight and obese children. Future prevention programmes must also take into account sex-specific risk factors.

Duration of breastfeeding and risk of overweight in childhood: a prospective birth cohort study from Germany

“…Compared to mothers who decided to breastfeed their children, mothers who decided to exclusively formula-feed their children were more often of Turkish nationality, had more often less than 10 years of school education, a higher housing density, a higher BMI, and had more often smoked during pregnancy or during follow-up. In contrast to other studies, 10,12,21,22 we found no relations of risk for children's overweight to some of the mother's and father's BMI, mother's education or smoking during pregnancy. One possible explanation for these differences might be that the follow-up time in our study was relatively short and the impact of these factors may increase when children get older.…”

“…Furthermore, in our study maternal smoking during pregnancy did not appeared as a risk factor for overweight in children as seen in former studies. 7,21,22 As maternal smoking habits were self-reported only, these associations should be interpreted with caution as smoking during pregnancy may have been under-reported. Finally, we have no information about sociodemographic or other characteristics of the families who decided not to participate in the baseline recruitment of our study.…”

Prevention of overweight in preschool children: results of kindergarten-based interventions

“…The observation that the basic strategy (EPIPOI-1) is effective in children from kindergartens in underprivileged areas, a proxy for lower SES is important because overweight and obesity are more prevalent in low SES groups [27][28][29][30][31] and because children of low SES are at a greater risk of becoming obese in adulthood compared with children of higher SES. 32 It is likely that the families of children in the underprivileged areas were more sensitive to interventions addressed to their children because they may be generally less exposed to information on overweight prevention, and may less utilize the health-care system.…”

Value of body fat mass vs anthropometric obesity indices in the assessment of metabolic risk factors

“…25 The main objective of this ongoing three-generation trial is to assess the contribution of genetic factors to the MSX. In all, 335 subjects (191 women and 144 men) were recruited by advertisements in local newspapers, by notice-board postings and writing to families that are continuously followed up as a KOPS subcohort.…”