Genes and the intergenerational transmission of BMI and obesity

Coupling and decoupling of ancestral linkages and current cross-border economic activities: Genetics and policy

This paper studies the potential link between the biological evolution of populations and present-day economic interactions by estimating the correlation of shared ancestry among populations with cross-border capital and human flows. To this end, we employ the new concept of genetic distance, based on (dis)similarity of neutral gene alleles, to quantify shared ancestry. We then incorporate the genetic distance measure into an augmented gravity model, traditionally used to analyze the effect of geographical distance on bilateral exchange. Our analysis focuses on bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI) and migration across 135 countries and we use both linear regression techniques as well as the Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood Estimator to account for any non-linearities in the model. Our results show that a 1% increase in genetic distance reduces FDI flows by 0.08% while controlling for other distance constructs and factors associated with global capital and human movement. Genetic distance also has a negative effect on migration, where a 1% increase in genetic distance reduces migration flows by 0.22%, with all other things remaining constant. Our study, therefore, links shared ancestry with economic behavior, showing how historical connections are associated with current economic exchanges among nations. Additionally, recognizing that ancestral ties are outside human control, we examine policy measures that help nations overcome such distance barriers. Our findings show that strengthening a nation's institutional quality and adherence to the rule of law can effectively mitigate any negative correlation of distance constructs with economic exchanges. These insights suggest that prudent policies to foster a stable business environment are essential for any nation to attract FDI and human capital, even from geographically or genetically distant nations.

Multigenerational inequalities of opportunity in health outcomes

This paper studies multigenerational health transmission mechanisms in Australian panel data. Using inequality-of-opportunity (IOP) models, we demonstrate that grandparental socioeconomic status (SES) is an important determinant of personal health, even after controlling for health and SES at the parental level. Our findings hold over a range of health/biomarkers of individuals' physical and mental well-being and appear to be especially sensitive to educational outcomes on the father's side. Since ingrained socioeconomic (dis)advantages that persist over multiple generations may be indicative of social class, our results suggest that subtle attitudinal and behavioural characteristics associated with this variable may be a key factor driving health disparities.

Education disrupts the intergenerational transmission of health disadvantage across three generations in China

This article utilizes survey data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to examine whether grandparents' health disadvantage have both direct and indirect effects on the health disadvantage of their grandchildren, and whether the completion of compulsory education by parents disrupts these intergenerational transmissions in China. The findings suggest that grandparents' health disadvantage significantly increases the probability of grandchildren's health disadvantage with and without controlling parental health disadvantage and other characteristics. Moreover, the study identifies a disruptive influence of parental education on this transmission process. Rigorous robustness tests, including the use of the Compulsory Education Law as an instrumental variable to control for unobserved factors, validate these results. Mechanism analysis shows that parents completing compulsory education contribute to improving their nutritional balance and adopting healthy behaviors, attaining higher social status, earning higher income, which ultimately reduce the probability of health disadvantage for both themselves and their children. These findings highlight the persistent intergenerational transmission of health disparities within families and emphasize the importance of enhancing individuals' education levels to disrupt this transmission. By doing so, it may be possible to mitigate health inequalities and disparities across the population.

The effect of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution on health inequality: an intergenerational perspective

Air pollution poses a serious challenge to public health and simultaneously exacerbating regional & intergenerational health inequality. This research introduces PM2.5 pollution into the intergenerational health transmission model, and estimates its impact on health inequality in China using Ordered Logit Regression (OLR) and Multi-scale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) model. The results indicate that PM2.5 pollution exacerbate the intergenerational health inequality, and its impacts show inconsistency across family income levels, parental health insurance status, and area of residence. Specifically, it is more difficult for offspring in low-income families to escape from the influence of unhealthy family to become upwardly mobile. Additionally, this health inequality is more significant in households in which at least one parent does not have health insurance. Moreover, the intergenerational solidification caused by PM2.5 pollution is higher in the east and lower in the west. Both the PM2.5 level and solidification effect are high in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River Delta region and central areas of China, which is the focus of air pollution management. These findings suggest that more emphasis should be placed on family-based health promotion. In areas with high PM2.5 pollution levels, resources, subsidies and air pollution protection should be provided for less healthy families with lower incomes and no health insurance.

Association between children's caregivers time preferences and childhood overweight and obesity in Mexico

BACKGROUND

Parents or children's primary caregivers are a key influence on child weight as both decision makers and role models for eating patterns, physical activity, and other social behaviors. It is unknown whether caregivers' time preferences are associated with overweight or obesity in children. The primary objective was to estimate the association between parents' or caregivers' time preferences and children having overweight or obesity in Mexico.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted using a representative survey of the Mexican population. A multinomial logistic model was used to examine the association between parents' or caregivers' time preferences (patience and time consistency) and child overweight or obesity, adjusting for potential confounders.

RESULTS

The study included 9,102 children (mean age 10, 43% female) and 5,842 caregivers (mean age 37; 95% female). Intertemporal preference was strongly associated with increased odds of overweight or obesity in children. A medium patient caregiver had higher odds of having overweight (adjusted OR: 1.73; 95% CI: 1.19, 2.52). Similarly, having a caregiver with a present (OR: 2.52; 95% CI: 1.72, 3.70) or future bias (OR: 1.48; 95% CI: 1.11, 1.98) was associated with higher odds of obesity.

CONCLUSION

Caregivers' time preferences were associated with having overweight and obesity in children and should be considered when developing policies to reduce children's obesity status.

Nordic paradox in action: The complicated relation between social mobility and health inequalities in an international comparative study

AIMS

Socio-economic inequalities originate from several channels, one of which is family origins, with clear effects on people's health. This paper aims to evaluate the role played by social mobility in determining health inequalities, relying on Blau and Duncan's status attainment model and focusing specifically on two moments of social reproduction of inequalities: one inter-generational, based on the transmission of resources from the family of origin, the other intra-generational, related to the capitalisation of economic resources to maximise well-being.

METHODS

Multi-group models of structural equations were used to examine the direct and indirect effects of parental cultural background, education and economic conditions of respondents on self-perceived health in 28 countries, relying on the European Social Survey (N=38,879).

RESULTS

Overall, the results confirmed the presence of an inter-generational transmission of social and health status. Different models of transmission of health inequalities emerged among the countries considered. Countries characterised by a social democratic welfare regime showed higher social mobility and fewer health inequalities, although in correspondence with a prominent role of economic factors in determining health conditions. On the other hand, in countries where social mobility is lower, health inequalities are more pronounced, yet driven by factors others than economics, such as socio-cultural origins.

CONCLUSIONS

The presence of a higher economic-health gradient in social democratic countries - notwithstanding their egalitarian and universal welfare policies - provides support for the existence of a Nordic paradox in relation to health inequalities.

An 8-week ketogenic diet improves exercise endurance and liver antioxidant capacity after weight loss in obese mice

Evolving evidence supports the role of the ketogenic diet (KD) in weight loss. However, no coherent conclusions are drawn on its impact on the effect of KD on exercise and antioxidant capacity after weight loss in obese individuals. We evaluated the exercise performance, energy metabolism and antioxidant capacity of mice after weight loss using high-fat diet-induced obese mice, and used KD and normal diet (ND) intervention, respectively, to provide a theoretical basis for further study of the health effects of KD. Our results showed that the 8-week KD significantly reduced the body weight of obese mice and improved the performance of treadmill exercise, but had no significant effect on grip strength. Serum biochemical results suggest that KD has the risk of elevating blood lipid. In liver tissue, KD significantly reduced the level of oxidative stress and increased the antioxidant capacity of the liver. Our findings suggest that the intervention with KD led to weight loss, modulate energy metabolism and improve aerobic exercise endurance in obese mice. Despite its antioxidant potential in the liver, the utilization of KD still requires caution. This study underscores the need for further investigation into the health impacts of KD, especially in regard to its potential risks.

Normal diet ameliorates obesity more safely and effectively than ketogenic diet does in high-fat diet-induced obesity mouse based on gut microbiota and lipid metabolism

Growing evidence supports the efficacy of ketogenic diets for inducing weight loss, but there are also potential health risks due to their unbalanced nutrient composition. We aim at assessing relative effectiveness of a balanced diet and ketogenic diet for reversing metabolic syndrome in a diet-induced C57BL/6J mouse model. Mice were fed high-fat diet to induce obesity. Obese individuals were then fed either ketogenic or balanced diets as an obesity intervention. Serum, liver, fat and faecal samples were analysed. We observed that both diet interventions led to significant decrease in body weight. The ketogenic intervention was less effective in reducing adipocyte cell size and led to dyslipidaemia. The composition of the gut microbiome in the balanced diet intervention was more similar to the non-obese control group and had improved functional attributes. Our results indicate intervention with balanced diets ameliorates obesity more safely and effectively than ketogenic diets in diet-induced obesity mouse model.

Multidimensional intergenerational mobility

In this paper, we present novel evidence of the extent to which intergenerational mobility is generalized or specific across domains of human and health capital. That is, do children who experience greater mobility in one domain (e.g., income) also experience mobility in other domains (education, health status, health behaviors, crime). Using rich data in Add Health, we find evidence against generalized mobility-families that are more mobile in one domain are not more mobile in others. We then ask a place-based version of this question, motivated by Chetty et al. (2014)'s work showing high levels of geographically-based income mobility in the US. The school-based sampling combined with parent-child links across many outcome domains of the Add Health allows us to use a common dataset between the two analyses. Like our individual-based results, we find limited evidence of generalized mobility by place-indeed, most estimates suggest close-to-zero correlations between many of the ten domains we explore.

Risk factors of persistent adolescent thinness: findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

BACKGROUND

Thinness during adolescence can increase the risk of adverse health outcomes across the life-course and impede development. There is limited research examining the prevalence and determinants of persistent adolescent thinness in the United Kingdom (UK). We used longitudinal cohort data to investigate determinants of persistent adolescent thinness.

METHODS

We analyzed data from 7,740 participants in the UK Millennium Cohort Study at ages 9 months, 7, 11, 14 and 17 years. Persistent thinness was defined as thinness at ages 11, 14 and 17; thinness was defined as an age- and sex-adjusted Body Mass Index (BMI) of less than 18.5 kg/m². In total, 4,036 participants, classified either as persistently thin or at a persistent healthy weight, were included in the analyses. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between 16 risk factors and persistent adolescent thinness by sex.

RESULTS

The prevalence of persistent thinness among adolescents was 3.1% (n = 231). Among males (n = 115), persistent adolescent thinness was significantly associated with non-white ethnicity, low parental BMI, low birthweight, low breastfeeding duration, unintended pregnancy, and low maternal education. Among females (n = 116), persistent adolescent thinness was significantly associated with non-white ethnicity, low birthweight, low self-esteem, and low physical activity. However, after adjusting for all risk factors, only low maternal BMI (OR: 3.44; 95% CI:1.13, 10.5), low paternal BMI (OR: 22.2; 95% CI: 2.35, 209.6), unintended pregnancy (OR: 2.49; 95% CI: 1.11, 5.57) and low self-esteem (OR: 6.57; 95% CI: 1.46,29.7) remained significantly associated with persistent adolescent thinness among males. After adjustment for all risk factors, not reaching the recommended physical activity levels (OR: 4.22; 95% CI: 1.82, 9.75) remained significantly associated with persistent adolescent thinness among females. No appreciable associations were found between persistent adolescent thinness and sex, premature birth, smoking during pregnancy, income, maternal postnatal depression, mother-infant attachment or socio-emotional difficulties (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Persistent adolescent thinness is not rare and appears to be associated with both physical and mental health factors, with some sex specific differences. Healthy weight initiatives should consider the full weight spectrum. Further research is required to understand thinness at a population level, including among those whose BMI changes during child and adolescent development.

Intergenerational Transmission of Obesity: Role of Education and Income

Based on the sixth round of the 2018 Chinese Household Income Project family income survey (CHIP) data, this study made use of the OLS estimation and transfer matrix method to measure and test the problem of obesity intergenerational transmission, analyze whether there is obesity intergenerational transmission as well as between urban and rural areas, gender, and the parental education level and income level on the suppression of the obesity intergenerational transmission effect. The empirical results draw the following main conclusions: obesity intergenerational transmission in Chinese families, the degree of parental obesity has a significant positive impact on the degree of offspring obesity; the higher the degree of parental obesity, the more it can promote the degree of obesity in the offspring. Moreover, the degree of obesity intergenerational transmission is heterogeneous in urban and rural areas and gender. At the same time, the degree of rural obesity intergenerational transmission is higher than that of urban areas, and the degree of male obesity intergenerational transmission is higher than that of women.

Sociodemographic and Socioeconomic Factors Influencing the Body Mass Composition of School-Age Children

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the components of overweight, obesity, and body mass components among children aged 7 to 13 years against important sociodemographic factors. The analyses considered 315 school-age children from 7 to 13 years of age (164 boys and 151 girls). Each subject was assessed for body weight and height, body weight category, and main sociodemographic factors. Body mass components of body mass (body-fat percentage (BFP), muscle tissue, fat-free mass (FFM), and total body water (TBW) levels) were evaluated using the electrical bioimpedance method (BIA) and the TANITA 780 MC analyzer. A statistical analysis showed significant differences between the body composition of children living in cities in relation to children living in small towns and villages, and no significant differences were found between the results of children living in small towns and children living in villages. The presence of statistically significant differences between the values of the parameters of body composition of the studied children was demonstrated depending on the level of education of their fathers. The presence of statistically significant relationships between BMI of mothers and BFP of their children (p = 0.003), FFM (p = 0.003), muscle tissue (p = 0.001), and TBW (p = 0.001) has been demonstrated. The higher content of adipose tissue in children is strongly dependent on the higher BMI and body mass category of the mother, as well as the lower level of education of the father. The place of residence also significantly affects both the body fat content and the total body water content of body hydration. Living in the city is associated with better body composition.

Socioeconomic inequalities in intergenerational overweight and obesity transmission from mothers to offsprings in South Africa

This study assesses socioeconomic inequality in the intergenerational transmission of overweight and obesity from mothers to offsprings in South Africa, including the factors contributing to inequality. Data were drawn from the 2017 National Income Dynamic Study, which collected anthropometric and socioeconomic information. Non-pregnant mothers aged 15–49 years and their offsprings 0–14 years were included in the analysis. The dependent variables used in the study were the intergenerational transmission of overweight and obesity. Socioeconomic inequality was assessed using the concentration index. A positive index means that intergenerational overweight and obesity is more likely among the wealthier populations, while a negative index signifies the opposite. The concentration index was decomposed to understand the factors that explain inequalities in the transmission of overweight and obesity from mothers to offsprings. Concentration indices for the intergenerational transmission of overweight and obesity were positive for boys (0.17) and girls (0.23). Thus the intergenerational transmission of overweight and obesity occurs more among wealthier mothers. Although factors explaining socioeconomic inequality in the intergenerational transmission of overweight and obesity differed by offspring sex, mother's marital status (+38%) and socioeconomic status (around +8%) were central determinants of socioeconomic inequalities in intergenerational overweight, while mother's smoking (around +25%), education (about +13%) and employment status (around +12%) contributed to intergenerational obesity inequality. Policies to reduce overweight and obesity burdens and the intergenerational transmission of overweight and obesity in South Africa should target women who bear a significant burden of overweight and obesity and could transmit them to their offsprings. The policies should also recognise the key factors explaining these socioeconomic inequalities. This approach will reduce the future burden of diseases associated with overweight and obesity in South Africa and improve the country's overall health outcomes.

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Intergenerational overweight and obesity occurs more among richer mothers.

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Mother's marital status influenced intergenerational overweight inequality.

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Intergenerational obesity inequality was attributed to mother's smoking status.

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Factors explaining intergenerational health inequalities differed by offspring sex.

Intergenerational Transmission of Obesity from Mothers to Their Offspring: Trends and Associated Factors Derived from the Malaysian National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS)

Along with the increasing overweight and obesity trends among adults and children globally, numerous studies have suggested a strong association between maternal overweight and obesity among their offspring. We sought to report the prevalence and associated factors of intergenerational overweight and obesity among mother–child pairs in Malaysia from 2006 to 2015. Data were analysed from three waves of the Malaysian National Health and Morbidity Survey, a population-based cross-sectional study conducted in 2006, 2011 and 2015. A mother and the youngest child from each household formed ‘mother–child pairs’ and were grouped according to their body mass index categories. A multivariable logistic regression model was performed to determine the factors associated with overweight mother/overweight child pairs (OWM/OWC), with normal weight mother/normal weight child pairs (NWM/NWC) as the reference group. The prevalence of OWM/OWC increased from 15.3% to 21.7%, while the prevalence of NWM/NWC decreased from 28.4% to 23.8% between 2006 and 2015. Older maternal age and having primary and secondary education levels were positively associated with OWM/OWC. Conversely, older child age, Chinese ethnicity, large household size and low-income households were inversely associated with OWM/OWC. In conclusion, intergenerational weight gain is a worrisome trend in Malaysia. These findings may help in guiding priority setting for obesity prevention strategies in Malaysia.

Intergenerational health effects of Medicaid

This paper investigates the effects of the introduction of Medicaid during the 1960s on next generations' birth outcomes. A federal mandate that all states must widen the coverage to all cash welfare recipients generated cross-state variations in Medicaid eligibility, specifically among nonwhites who largely overrepresented the target population. I implement a reduced-form difference-in-differences strategy that compares the birth outcomes of mothers born in states with higher cash welfare recipiency versus low welfare recipiency and different years relative to the Medicaid implementation year. Using Natality data (1970-2004), I find that Medicaid significantly improves birth outcomes. The effects are considerably larger among nonwhites, specifically blacks. The effects do not appear to be driven by preexisting trends in birth outcomes, preexisting trends in households' socioeconomic characteristics, changes in other welfare expenditures, and selective fertility. A back-of-an-envelope calculation points to a minimum of 3.9% social externality of Medicaid through income rises due to next generations' improvements in birth outcomes.

Exploring a theory of change: Are increases in parental empowerment associated with healthier weight-related parenting practices?

INTRODUCTION

Parent health-related empowerment is defined as the process by which parents realize control over their life situation and take action to promote a healthier lifestyle. For decades, researchers have described the theoretical potential of empowerment in health promotion efforts, though few have empirically examined this hypothesized relationship. This study is one of the first to examine the relationship between parental empowerment and healthy weight parenting practices (i.e., food, physical activity, sleep, and media parenting), as a mechanism for early childhood health promotion in community settings.

METHODS

Low-income parents of preschool-aged children attending Head Start in Greater Boston between fall 2017 and spring 2019 were invited to complete a survey in the fall and spring of each academic school year (n = 578 with two surveys and n = 45 with four). Parental empowerment and healthy weight parenting practices were assessed using validated surveys. We used a multilevel difference-in-difference approach to estimate changes in healthy weight parenting practices score by changes in parental empowerment score.

RESULTS

Out of a possible score of four, the unadjusted mean (SD) score in fall was 3.20 (0.40) for empowerment and 3.01 (0.40) for parenting. An increase in parental empowerment was associated with an increase in healthier parenting practices (b = 0.14; 95% CI = 0.08, 0.20; p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

Parent empowerment may be an important target in interventions to prevent obesity in low-income children.

Global relationship between parent and child obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

The growing prevalence of overweight and/or obese children is an important public health problem in both developed and developing countries. Although the association of obesity between parents and their children is well known, its underlying mechanisms are not well established.

PURPOSE

This meta-analysis examined parent-child (PC) relationships in obesity and identified factors such as world region and country income level that may influence this relationship.

METHODS

We identified all related studies published between January 1, 2015 and May 31, 2020 by conducting a literature search using the MeSH terms "obesity," "overweight," "body mass index," "parent," "child," "associate," and "relate" in the PubMed database in English.

RESULTS

The meta-analysis of 23 studies that reported an odds ratio (OR) for parent and child obesity associations found a significant association between parents and children who were overweight or obese (pooled OR, 1.97; 95% confidence interval, 1.85-2.10). A meta-regression analysis was used to examine the sources of interstudy heterogeneity. The association between parent and child obesity was higher in Asia than in Europe and the Middle East and higher in high-income countries than in middle-or low-income countries. In addition, a higher association between parent and child obesity was found when both parents were obese than when only the father or mother was obese. This study from multiple countries indicates a significant PC relationship in weight status that varies according to PC pair type, parent and child weight statuses, world region, and country income level.

CONCLUSION

These results demonstrate that the risk of childhood obesity is greatly influenced by parental weight status and indicate that parents could play an important role in preventing child obesity.

Transgenerational health effects of in utero exposure to economic hardship: Evidence from preindustrial Southern Norway

We studied whether in utero exposure to economic hardship during a grandmother's pregnancy has a transgenerational effect on her grandchildren's health condition. We used an individual-level three-generation data set covering people born between 1734 and 1840 in the municipality of Rendalen in Norway. We found a culling effect in which grandchildren whose grandmothers gave birth in years of economic hardship lived approximately ten years longer than grandchildren whose mothers were born in years of economic well-being. This impact was only observed among the grandmothers who belong to the lowest social classes. Our results also showed that in higher social classes, economic hardship during a grandmother's pregnancy deteriorated her grandchildren's health by "scarring" the mother's health.

Influence of parental physical activity on offspring's nutritional status: an intergenerational study in the 1993 Pelotas birth cohort

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the influence of parental physical activity on offspring's nutritional status in the 1993 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort.

DESIGN

Birth cohort study.

SETTING

The main outcomes were overweight and obesity status of children. The main exposure was parental physical activity over time, measured during the 11, 15 and 18 years of age follow-ups. The exposure was operationalised as cumulative, and the most recent measure before the birth of child. We adjusted Poisson regression models with robust variance to evaluate crude and adjusted associations between parental physical activity and offspring's nutritional status. All analyses were stratified according to the sex of the parent.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 874 members from the 1993 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort followed-up at 22 years of age with their first-born child were analysed.

RESULTS

Children were, on average, 3·1 years old. Crude analyses showed that the mother's cumulative physical activity measure had an indirect association with the prevalence of children's obesity. The most recent maternal physical activity measure before the birth of the child was associated with 41 % lower prevalence of obesity in children, even after adjustment for confounders.

CONCLUSIONS

The most recent maternal physical activity measure was indirectly associated with the prevalence of obesity in children. No associations were found for fathers, reinforcing the hypothesis of a biological effect of maternal physical activity on offspring's nutritional status.

Intergenerational health mobility: Magnitudes and Importance of Schools and Place

This paper broadens the literature on intergenerational persistence of socioeconomic status to consider individual, family, and spatial variation in intergenerational health mobility in the United States. Using a school-based representative panel (Add Health), we report overall health persistence of 0.17 with higher mobility in Hispanic families. We find large variation by place; intergenerational health persistence estimates range between 0 and 0.5, with similarly large ranges for absolute upward and downward health mobility. School- and contextual-level correlates indicate local race/ethnicity composition, proportion of single parents, and average mother's education may be related to observed variation in intergenerational health mobility.

The intergenerational effects of socioeconomic inequality on unhealthy bodyweight

We study the effects of inherited socioeconomic characteristics on markers of unhealthy bodyweight. Taking Australian microdata from 2007 to 2013, we show that approximately 4% of the variation in outcomes is determined by factors beyond an individual's control, such as their race, gender, and social class. Paternal socioeconomic status is the primary explanatory factor, with those born to more affluent fathers slightly less likely to be overweight in adulthood. Decompositions reveal that only 20%-25% of this effect is attributable to advantaged families exhibiting better health behaviors, which implies that unobserved factors also play an important role. Since diseases associated with unhealthy weight place a major strain on public healthcare systems, our results have implications for the provision of treatment when resources are constrained.

Body mass index, prudent diet score and social class across three generations: evidence from the Hertfordshire Intergenerational Study

BACKGROUND

Studies describing body mass index (BMI) and prudent diet score have reported that they are associated between parents and children. The Hertfordshire Intergenerational Study, which contains BMI, diet and social class information across three generations, provides an opportunity to consider the influence of grandparental and parental BMI and prudent diet score across multiple generations, and the influence of grandparental and parental social class on child BMI.

METHODS

Linear regressions examining the tracking of adult BMI and prudent diet score across three generations (grandparent (F0), parent (F1) and child (F2)) were run from parent to child and from grandparent to grandchild. Linear mixed models investigated the influence of F0 and F1 BMI or prudent diet score on F2 BMI and prudent diet score. Linear regressions were run to determine whether social class and prudent diet score of parents and grandparents influenced the BMI of children and grandchildren.

RESULTS

BMI was significantly associated across each generational pair and from F0 to F1 in multilevel models. Prudent diet score was significantly positively associated between grandparents and grandchildren. Lower grandparental and parental social class had a significantly positive association with F2 BMI (F0 low social class: b=1.188 kg/m2, 95% CI 0.060 to 2.315, p=0.039; F1 middle social class: b=2.477 kg/m2, 95% CI 0.726 to 4.227, p=0.006).

CONCLUSION

Adult BMI tracks across generations of the Hertfordshire Intergenerational Study, and child BMI is associated with parental and grandparental social class. The results presented here add to literature supporting behavioural and social factors in the transmission of BMI across generations.

Intergenerational Mobility in Self-Reported Health Status in the US

We present estimates of intergenerational mobility in self-reported health status (SRHS) in the US using data from the PSID. We estimate that the rank-rank slope in SRHS is 0.26. We show that including both parent health and income in models of intergenerational mobility increases the explanatory power of child outcomes. We construct a monetary metric for health and then use this to combine income and health into a measure of welfare and estimate the rank-rank slope to be about 0.4 for this new measure. Finally, we document striking health mobility gaps by race, region and parent education.

Is the intergenerational transmission of overweight 'gender assortative'?

Using almost two decades worth of data from the Health Survey for England, that contain representative records of clinically measured weight and height, this paper studies whether parents and children's overweight (including obesity) is 'gender assortative'. Our findings suggest that the intergenerational transmission of parent's overweight differs by children's sex and is statistically different for fathers and mothers. Gender assortative overweight is stronger among pre-school age and school-aged children. The parent-child associations are large and precisely estimated, heterogeneous by children's age and sex and stronger among white children and children of older parents. These results suggest there is a gender assortative intergenerational association of overweight.

Can shorter mothers have taller children? Nutritional mobility, health equity and the intergenerational transmission of relative height

This study develops the concept of nutritional mobility, defined here as the probability that a mother ranked low in her cohort's height distribution will have a child who attains a higher rank order. We demonstrate that rank-order regression provides a robust metric of health equity, revealing differences in opportunities for each child to reach their own growth potential. We estimate four indicators of nutritional mobility and test for associations between nutritional mobility and various local economic and environmental factors. Nutritional mobility has improved over time, and the nutrition environment contributes about 2.86 times as much as a mother's height to her child's expected rank in height-for-age. Populations with the least mobility are in Latin America, and the most mobility is in more urbanized areas of Africa and Asia. Rank-order mobility is an important aspect of health equity, offering valuable insight into the role of socioecological factors in nutrition improvement across generations.

Inequality of opportunities in health and death: an investigation from birth to middle age in Great Britain

Objective

We assess the existence of unfair inequalities in health and death using the normative framework of inequality of opportunities, from birth to middle age in Great Britain.

Methods

We use data from the 1958 National Child Development Study, which provides a unique opportunity to observe individual health from birth to the age of 54, including the occurrence of mortality. We measure health status combining self-assessed health and mortality. We compare and statistically test the differences between the cumulative distribution functions of health status at each age according to one childhood circumstance beyond people’s control: the father’s occupation.

Results

At all ages, individuals born to a ‘professional’, ‘senior manager or technician’ father report a better health status and have a lower mortality rate than individuals born to ‘skilled’, ‘partly skilled’ or ‘unskilled’ manual workers and individuals without a father at birth. The gap in the probability to report good health between individuals born into high social backgrounds compared with low, increases from 12 percentage points at age 23 to 26 at age 54. Health gaps are even more marked in health states at the bottom of the health distribution when mortality is combined with self-assessed health.

Conclusions

There is increasing inequality of opportunities in health over the lifespan in Great Britain. The tag of social background intensifies as individuals get older. Finally, there is added analytical value to combining mortality with self-assessed health when measuring health inequalities.

Childhood Origins Of Intergenerational Health Mobility In The United States

Policy makers and parents should share a goal that all children have opportunities to thrive, regardless of their circumstances at birth. Studies that focus on socioeconomic measures of opportunities for thriving measure intergenerational mobility, or the extent to which children's outcomes can diverge from those of their parents. We bring this focus to the study of children's health by estimating intergenerational health mobility during early childhood in a national sample. We find that children in families characterized as minorities, those without health insurance, or those with low socioeconomic status experience less upward health mobility and greater downward health mobility. We also show that community characteristics may shape health mobility. For example, children growing up in places with high proportions of uninsured residents are less likely to experience upward health mobility and more likely to experience downward health mobility. These descriptive findings may allow new insights into ways in which children's health can be decoupled from their circumstances at birth.

Variability in sociodemographic factors and obesity in Korean children: a cross-sectional analysis of Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination survey data (2007-2015)

PURPOSE

Sociodemographic factors are well-known risk factors for childhood obesity, even though the relationship between sociodemographic factors and obesity varies among countries. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between sociodemographic factors and obesity in Korean children.

METHODS

This study is an analysis of cross-sectional data from the 2007-2009, 2010-2012, and 2013-2015 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. The sample included 14,482 children aged between 2 and 18 years (7652 boys and 6830 girls) and their parents. Sociodemographic factors were measured as a combination of demographic, economic, and sociological factors, including sex, age, residential area, family income, parent education level, and parent employment status.

RESULTS

In 2013-2015, obesity among Korean children was associated with current maternal smoking (P < .001). Obesity categorized according to age group was positively associated with paternal education level/high school graduation (P = .026 for ages 7-12 years), maternal smoking (P = .003 for ages 7-12 years), maternal body mass index (all age groups), paternal body mass index (all age groups), and low monthly family income (P = .017 for ages 2-6 years).

CONCLUSIONS

Current maternal smoking habits, paternal education, and low family income are potential risk factors for obesity in Korean children.

Influence of post-partum BMI change on childhood obesity and energy intake

Introduction

Association between parent’s Body Mass Index (BMI) and their children, has been widely documented. Individual, familiar and structural factors play a role in this relation. We analyzed the association between maternal BMI change during the first year post-partum and their offspring’s growth-trajectories and energy intake in their first five years of life.

Objective

Compare growth-trajectories and children’s caloric intake according to post-partum mother´s BMI classification.

Methods

The anthropometric assessment was taken in 935 mother-child pairs along the study period. Mothers were classified into four groups according to their BMI-trajectories in the post-partum. Children’s weight for height z-scores (WHZ) was compared among groups using random-effects regression models. A longitudinal comparison of children’s caloric intake by the maternal group was carried out.

Results

At 42 months of age, infants from mothers that remained overweight during the first year post-partum had, on average, 0.61 SD higher WHZ than those from mothers who remained in a recommended BMI group (R-BMI) in the same period. At 60 months of age, children´s prevalence of obesity was almost twice in the maternal overweight group vs R-BMI group (14.2% and 7.3% respectively). Chances for a child of having an over caloric intake were 36.5% (95% IC: 6.6%, 74.8%) and significantly higher among children from overweight mothers than those from R-BMI mothers. The difference in children’s WHZ trajectory remained significant after adjusting for caloric intake, suggesting that contextual factors play a role in shaping children’s obesity. A concurrent ethnographic study with the study subjects provides suggestions as to what these factors might be, including changes in the food landscape.

Conclusion

Children from overweight mothers tended to have a more caloric diet yielding a higher propensity to obesity. Contextual factors such as food landscape might contribute to childhood obesity beyond having an overweight mother. Pregnancy and post-partum is a window of opportunity for interventions to decrease the incidence of children’s overweight.

Intergenerational transmission of nicotine within families: Have e-cigarettes influenced passive smoking?

Using an objective biomarker of active and passive smoking, we estimate Galtonian regressions of nicotine transmission and test whether the use of new nicotine delivery products (NDP) by parents had an influence on the transmission to children through passive smoking. We find evidence of a strong intergenerational transmission through passive smoking and that this is around four times larger for mothers compared to fathers. Moreover, we estimate an intention to treat difference-in-differences (DiD) model using parental cotinine as a continuous measure of exposure to the treatment and we find that the level of transmission of cotinine from parents was reduced to 51 per cent of the previous level just after the spread in the use of e-cigarettes in England and to 77 per cent when considering transmission from mothers. This is confirmed also by a DiD model which considers interaction between cotinine levels and self-reported use of NDP by parents and suggests that lower taxation of these devices may be justified on externality grounds.

Does education attenuate the genetic risk of obesity? Evidence from U.K. Twins

More education is associated with a lower body mass index (BMI) and likelihood of being obese. Obesity and BMI also have a strong genetic basis. Given these observations, we investigate whether more education can reduce obesity by attenuating the underlying genetic risk of being obese, through gene-environment (GxE) interactions. We estimate associations between (i) education, (ii) a genetic risk score (GRS) and (iii) GxE interactions between education and the GRS through Ordinary least Squares (OLS) and twins fixed-effect regressions using data on female twins from the TwinsUK database. OLS estimates show that there are significant associations of education and genetics. Female twins with a university education are 14.3 percentage points less likely to be obese compared to twins with less than compulsory education, and a 1 standard deviation increase in the GRS increases the likelihood of being obese by 5.2 percentage points. The GxE interactions are statistically insignificant, suggesting that the marginal association of the GRS with obesity does not differ by educational attainment. When controlling for confounding through twins fixed-effects, we find a smaller role of genetics. The association of the GRS with obesity decreases to 0.040. Associations of educational attainment are substantially reduced and insignificant. GxE interactions also remain insignificant. Overall, we find little evidence of any GxE interactions.

Long-run overweight levels and convergence in body mass index

We evaluate the hypothesis of convergence to an optimal long-run body weight worldwide. We formulate a simple rational non-addiction eating model to derive a testable equation that allows us to verify the existence of a long-run body weight as well as its estimation. We use a database of body mass index (BMI) estimates across countries over four decades published by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration. We find that BMIs converge among European countries but not in the rest of the world. Consistent with the theoretical model, our long-run estimates suggest that European nations will show an average BMI above healthy levels. In particular, females and males will show average BMIs classified as overweight levels (BMI = 28.3). Confidence intervals and sensitivity analysis suggest that males might reach long-term BMI levels associated with obesity (BMI > 30). We discuss the implications of our findings from the perspectives of health economics and economic development.

The intergenerational transmission of obesity: The role of time preferences and self-control

Previous research has found that impatient time preferences and self-control problems (present bias) are related to increased obesity risk. However, scant evidence exists pertaining to whether parents' impatience and self-control problems impact the obesity status of their children, too. Accordingly, we explore this study question among a large national sample of US adults and their children. Study results confirm previous findings indicating that intertemporal preferences are related to adults' obesity status. Moreover, these results extend the literature by finding that children of impatient or present-biased parents have a significantly higher likelihood of being obese, too. Specifically, parents' low levels of patience and present bias were each independently related to a five-percentage point increase in the likelihood of obesity of their children. These findings were more pronounced when all children were combined in analyses and for the first child; however, they varied for the second and third child. Thus, findings suggest that parents' time preferences and self-control problems likely affect not only their own weight status but that of their children.