Full-Time Working Moms to Blame for Childhood Obesity?

http://www.aolhealth.com/2010/06/14/full-time-working-moms-to-blame-for-childhood-obesity/


Full-Time Working Moms to Blame for Childhood Obesity?

These days it's not uncommon for women to have both careers and families, but new research suggests that full-time working moms may be a factor in the growing childhood obesity trend.

For the study, the lives of more than 8,552 adults were followed since their birth in 1958, and results showed that their children were 50 percent more likely to be overweight or obese than the parents were themselves when they were at a similar age, Reuters Health reported.

Dr. Leah Li and her team at London University College focused on this group of participants, who in 1991, had a total of 1,889 children between the ages of 4 and 9.

The results showed that 12 percent of the adult study participants' sons and 18 percent of their daughters were overweight. By comparison, just 8 percent of the fathers and 11 percent of the mothers were overweight or obese as children.

Based on their findings, the researchers looked at whether childhood obesity might be linked to having a mother that works full-time. This is because families with full-time working mothers ate fewer family dinners and were more likely to eat unhealthy and conveniently accessible meals.

In addition to this, researchers studied whether the children had more high-sugar foods available to them, saw more unhealthy food advertising aimed at them and were given unhealthy school lunch options.

The study did not include details about the children's diets and exercise habits, Reuters Health reported.

Li's study found that children who had moms working full-time were 48 percent more likely to be overweight or obese than children with stay-at-home moms. The results were adjusted for a family's socioeconomics, the parents' weight and whether or not the child was breastfed. Breast-feeding, in some studies, has been linked to a lower risk of childhood obesity, Reuters Health reported.

The study also found that children with overweight or obese parents were 3 to 6 times more likely to be overweight or obese themselves. Only about 7 percent of the parents were obese in 1965 when they were children, whereas 12 percent of the parents were obese as adults in 1991, the study found.

Li and her colleagues concluded that it's likely that both the weight of the parents and the mothers' employment status contributed to whether or not the children were obese.