TOPLINE:

The association between BMI and obesity in parents and their offspring extends into adulthood, with daughters of mothers and children of two parents with obesity having more than a threefold higher risk for the condition.

METHODOLOGY:

• Although the connection between parental and offspring obesity is well established during childhood and adolescence, less is known about how this relationship persists into midlife.
• Researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 2068 parent-offspring trios from two surveys of the population-based Tromsø Study in Norway to investigate sex-specific associations of BMI and obesity status between parents and adult offspring.
• Offspring aged 40-59 years from the Tromsø7 survey (2015-2016) were linked to their parents, who were aged 40-59 years when participating in the Tromsø4 survey (1994-1995), yielding complete mother-father-offspring trios.
• Data included anthropometric measurements, as well as questionnaires on education levels for both generations and information on offspring’s physical activity and diet.

TAKEAWAY:

• A four-unit increase in maternal BMI was associated with a 0.95- and 0.62-unit increase in BMI among daughters and sons, respectively; a 3.1-unit increase in paternal BMI corresponded to a 0.80-unit and 0.68-unit increase in BMI among daughters and sons, respectively.
• Offspring had an increased risk for obesity when one or both parents were overweight, with relative risks (RR) of 1.69 in daughters and 1.43 in sons; the risk increased further when the mother had obesity (RR for daughters, 3.29; RR for sons, 1.81) or the father had obesity (RR for daughters, 2.70; RR for sons, 2.30).
• The risk for offspring obesity when only the mother had obesity was significantly stronger in daughters than in sons (P = .03).
• When both parents had obesity, offspring had more than a threefold higher risk for obesity than those with parents of normal weight (RR for daughters, 3.36; RR for sons, 3.01).

IN PRACTICE:

“The persistence of obesity across generations suggests that obesity should be approached not just as an individual health issue but as a familial and a community health concern,” the authors wrote. 

SOURCE:

The study was led by Mari Mikkelsen, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway. It was published online in the Journal of Obesity.

LIMITATIONS:

Adjustments were made for offspring lifestyle factors but not those of the parents. Although BMI and waist circumference are commonly used for population-level obesity assessment, they do not distinguish fat mass from lean mass, which limits precision compared with more detailed body composition measurements. 

DISCLOSURES:

The study was conducted as part of the authors’ employment at the Department of Community Medicine at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. The authors reported having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.