Body Mass Index in Children and Their Parents: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Study Population of Children from Southern Italy

The prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased over the last decades. Parental obesity plays an important role in determining childhood obesity. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between parental and offspring’ weight status in a population of children from South of Italy, as no data have ever been published from this area. We recruited 636 children (5.7 ± 1.5 years old) and their parents. Seventy-three (11.5%) and sixteen (2.5%) children were overweight and obese, respectively. Offspring weight status was significantly associated with parents’ weight status. The linear regression analysis showed that offspring BMI was more affected by paternal than by maternal BMI. Our data confirmed that parents’ weight status plays an important role on children’s BMI. Interestingly, in our study, parents’ height and weight were measured and not reported as in most of the previous papers, strengthening our conclusions. We suggest that intensive nutritional education and preventive programs should be performed in children with overweight / obese parents rather than in children with normal weight parent. Furthermore, nutritional education should be performed also for overweight parents to modify preventable risk factor for pediatric obesity.