Children of mothers who smoked or were obese, are more likely to become obese adults, study studies

A study shows that factors outside the control of a person, such as the socio -economic status and whether their mother smoked or was obese, can influence whether they are overweight or are obese as teenagers or adults. Glenna Nightingale of the University of Edinburgh, the UK and colleagues report these findings in the Open-Access Journal Plos One.

Obesity is considered a global problem for public health, but experts still disagree about the precise origin and causes of rising obesity rates. A topic under debate is whether the individual genetics and behaviors of a person are more or less important than environmental factors, such as socio -economic status, in the development of obesity.

In the new study, researchers estimate the impact of various factors on the weight of a person, including social factors, such as the work type of a person, as well as early life factors, such as the birth order of a person, how they were delivered and whether their mother smoked or was obese.

They looked specifically at whether a person was overweight, obese or seriously obese at the age of 16 and 42 years. They also looked at the weight of the participants between the age of 16 to 42, a reach that includes the rise in obesity rates in the United Kingdom.

The data came from the National Child Development Study from 1958, a long -term study that followed the life of more than 17,000 people born in a few weeks in March 1958 in England, Scotland and Wales.

The analysis showed that if a mother was obese or if she smoked, her child was rather obese or obese on each of the ages surveyed.

The findings show that these early life factors can have a persistent effect on the weight of a person. In particular, these factors were just as powerful before and after the start of the obesity rates in the UK, which suggests that the impact of individual factors, such as behavior, probably did not change at the time.

The results suggest that social and early risk factors can be used to focus on obesity prevention programs for children and adults. The researchers also conclude that, since individual risk factors have not changed as obesity rates have risen, new studies are needed to identify social factors that may have caused the current obesity pandemic.

The authors add: “Our research shows that the effect of maternal influences will continue to exist for up to 42 years and that, striking, those predictors were just as powerful (and common) in the era before the current obesity pandemie began.

“This suggests that, as Geoffrey Rose has noticed, new studies are needed of factors at community/social level that may have caused the current Obesity Pandemie, because risk factors at the individual level have not changed in the time period that includes the start and growth of the pandemic.”