Introduction: Childhood obesity is a matter of concern all over the world. It is evident from the literature that obesity tends to run in families. Therefore, in the present study, an attempt has been made to find the association between parental obesity and childhood obesity.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Kot Khalsa area of Amritsar and data was collected from 102 parents (51 fathers & 51 mothers) and 105 offsprings’ (68 sons & 37 daughters) belonging to middle socio-economic status and low physical activity. Height and weight measurements of parents and their offsprings’ were taken by standard methodology and BMI was calculated. Prevalence of obesity among parents and offsprings’ was assessed with the help of international BMI standards.
Results: The combined prevalence of overweight/obesity among parents and offsprings’ was found out to be 61.77% and 20.00%, respectively which was quite higher even than the populations of the developed countries. The present results have also shown that when both parents were overweight/obese then their offsprings’ had 3.14 times more relative risk for development of overweight/obesity than their normal counterparts. On the other hand, if only mother was overweight/obese then their offsprings’ showed 1.19 times more relative risk for development of overweight/obesity compared to the overweight/obese fathers.
Conclusion: The results of the present study prove that offsprings’ of overweight/obese parents were at an increase risk of being overweight/obese compared to their counterparts of normal weight parents. However, present findings need to be confirmed by longitudinal studies and genetic linkage studies.