Parental overweight as an indicator of childhood overweight: how sensitive?

Full Abstract

This study determined the sensitivity and specificity of parental overweight from self-reported height and weight to identify families with overweight school age children. A cross sectional study was conducted among 3059 parents and their children (1558 boys and 1501 girls) aged 7-12 years in five primary schools of Busan, Korea. BMI was calculated from parental reported height and weight and from children's measured height and weight. Parents were considered overweight when their BMI was >25 kg/m2 (WHO, 2000). Children were considered overweight when their BMI was >95th percentile (CDC, 2000). Prevalence of overweight was calculated and logistic regressions were performed. The sensitivity and specificity of parental overweight were calculated. A total of 26% (805/3059) parents were overweight. Of the families with one overweight parent, 15% (N = 109) had an overweight child. When both parents were overweight, 17% (N = 9) had an overweight child. After adjusting for child's age and gender, parental education, family income, and spouse's BMI as required, the odds of having an overweight child were 2.5 [1.8, 3.3] for one overweight parent, and 3.2 [1.4, 7.1] for both overweight parents. While the sensitivity of one overweight parent to identify families with overweight school age children was 44%, specificity was 75%. The presence of both overweight parents provided a 3% sensitivity and 98% specificity for the identification of an overweight school age child. Although parental overweight was obtained from self-reported weight and height in Busan (Korea), it is a practical indicator to identify families with an overweight school age child, it has poor sensitivity.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Lee, Kayoung (K); Kwon, Eun-Ryoung (ER); Park, Tae-Jin (TJ); Park, Min-Seon Nv (MS); Lenders, Carine M (CM);

Affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Pusan Paik Hospital, 633-165 Kaegum-dong, Busan Jin-Gu, Busan, 614-735, Republic of Korea. fmlky(-atsign-)dreamwiz.com

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition (Asia Pac J Clin Nutr), published in Australia. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-; vol 15 (issue 2) : pp 196-200

Dates: Created 2006/05/04; Completed 2006/09/18;

PMID: 16672203, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Body Mass Index
Child
Child Nutrition Disorders - diagnosis; epidemiology
Cohort Studies
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Korea - epidemiology

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.