142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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308085
Mother vs. father differences in risk factors for child overweight/obese

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Sunday, November 16, 2014

Mendel Singer, PhD MPH , Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
Recai Aktay, MD , Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
Background: Certain parental factors are associated with childhood obesity, such as parent weight and education. But little is known how the impact may differ for mothers vs. fathers.

Methods: Data from the 2008,2012 Ohio Family Health Survey.  Overweight/obese defined by CDC. Weight data available for children aged 10-17. Child surveys had data for 1 adult. Those with non-parent adult respondent were excluded. Data(child, parent) included sociodemographics, health insurance, various measures of health status(physical/mental). Stratified logistic and modified poisson regressions for child overweight/obese were run with parent factors as study variables, adjusting for child characteristics. Analyses accounted for complex survey design.

Results: 7,323 children met criteria. Children with mother respondent were more often(p<.05): African-American, overweight/obese, Medicaid, low income, metropolitan county, poor physical and mental health, asthma, limited ability to do things, major medical costs in past year. Mothers tended to be less(p<.05): educated, overweight/obese. Mothers were more often(p<.05): non-married, poor physical and mental health, uninsured. Association with child overweight/obese: mother overweight(RR=1.40;p<.0001) but not father overweight(RR=0.90;p=.5290), mother obese(RR=1.82;p<.0001) and father obese(RR=1.29;p=.0376), father 4-yr degree(RR=0.64;p=.0004) but mother 4-yr degree only trended(RR=0.85;p=.0766), father widowed(RR=1.69;p=.0243) and mother non-married trended(RR=1.14;p=.0960).

Discussion: In this study, the biggest predictors of child overweight/obese was mother’s weight, father’s education and widowed father. Analysis of data with only 1 parent, as is common in large surveillance studies, needs to distinguish mother vs. father. These results may also inform child obesity interventions. Reasons for differential impact of parental factors needs further exploration.

Learning Areas:

Chronic disease management and prevention
Epidemiology
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Identify how parent characteristics for mothers and fathers differ in their association with child being overweight or obese.

Keyword(s): Obesity, Children and Adolescents

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been a health services and public health researcher and faculty member for 18 years, working extensively with large surveillance studies.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.