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Maternal Characteristics and Incidence of Overweight/Obesity in Children: A 13-Year Follow-up Study in an Eastern Mediterranean Population

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Abstract

Objectives To investigate clustering of parental sociobehavioral factors and their relationship with the incidence of overweight and obesity in Iranian children. Methods Demographics, body weight, and certain medical characteristics of the parents of 2999 children were used to categorize parents by cluster; children’s weights were assessed for each cluster. Specifically, survival analysis and Cox regression models were used to test the effect of parental clustering on the incidence of childhood overweight and obesity. Results Maternal metabolic syndrome, education level, age, body weight status, and paternal age had important roles in distinguishing clusters with low, moderate, and high risk. Crude incidence rates (per 10,000 person-years) of overweight and obesity were 416.8 (95% confidence interval (CI) 388.2–447.5) and 114.7 (95% CI 101.2–129.9), respectively. Children of parents with certain constellations of demographic and medical characteristics were 37.0 and 41.0% more likely to become overweight and obese, respectively. Conclusions for Practice The current study demonstrated the vital role of maternal characteristics in distinguishing familial clusters, which could be used to predict the incidence of overweight and obesity in children.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their appreciation to all participants who made this study possible and wish to acknowledge Ms. Niloofar Shiva for critical editing of the manuscript for English grammar and syntax.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Social Determinants of Endocrine Health & Obesity Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box: 19395-4763, Tehran, Iran

    Sara Jalali-Farahani, Parisa Amiri & Mehrdad Karimi

  2. Department of Nutrition, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Behnood Abbasi

  3. Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Behnood Abbasi

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mehrdad Karimi

  5. Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Leila Cheraghi

  6. Cellular and Molecular Endocrine Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Maryam Sadat Daneshpour

  7. Endocrine Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Fereidoun Azizi

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  1. Sara Jalali-Farahani
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Correspondence to Parisa Amiri.

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Jalali-Farahani, S., Amiri, P., Abbasi, B. et al. Maternal Characteristics and Incidence of Overweight/Obesity in Children: A 13-Year Follow-up Study in an Eastern Mediterranean Population. Matern Child Health J 21, 1211–1220 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-016-2222-7

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