Genetic heritage as a risk factor enabling chilhood obesity

Abstract

Introduction

Nowadays, it is an evidence that maternal obesity is an important predictor of obesity in the descendants, not being consensual if that influence comes from the interaction between genes and facilitators family contexts or both.

Objectives

1) To determinate the prevalence of the child overweight; 2) to classify the nutritional status and metabolic risk of the progenitors; 3) to analyze the effect of the markers of the family metabolic risk in the expression of the illness in the child.

Material and methods

Descriptive study composed by 1424 children, average age 4.58 years old and their mothers, average age 34.47 years old, living in several parts of Portugal. The children's anthropometric measures were evaluated and classified according to the NCHS referential (CDC, 2000)¹ and of the progenitors by the orientations of the WHO (2000)² and Portugal, DGS (2005).³ Social demographic data was obtained by filling in the Food Frequency Questionnaire adapted from Rito (2007).⁴

Results

The overweight affected 34.3% of the children, (including 17.4% obesity), being the higher values on boys (36.8%) and in 5 year old children (39.5). In 41.9% of the progenitors overweight was noted (12.1% obesity), being higher in mothers with low scholarship, low income, older and living in a rural area. The probability of the child to be overweighted was 1.4 times higher when mothers were overweight, and close to 2 times in the relationship mother/daughter. Others enabling factors were revealed, like weight gain above recommended during pregnancy and a higher weight at birth.

Conclusions

Due to the obtained interferences, it is accepted the existence of enabling factors of maternal and child markers in the development of overweight in the child, so that the prevention of child obesity should consider not only the environmental dimension but also the genetic heritage.