Obese Children Likely to Have Same-Sex Parent Battling the Condition

New research published in the International Journal of Obesity suggests that the obesity link between parents and their children is not necessarily genetic. The EarlyBird Diabetes Study done by Peninsula Medical School at the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth in England has found that children are more likely to be obese if their same-sex parent is. This study leads researchers to believe that it is behavior, not genetics, which is the influencing factor in whether a child will become obese.

The three year study was conducted on 226 British families. The researchers found that an obese woman was ten times more likely to have an obese daughter and an obese father was six times more likely to have an obese son. The results of the study were that 4% of girls with mothers of normal weight were obese. The rate if the mothers were obese rose to 41%. For boys, 18% with obese fathers were also obese. If the father was a normal weight, the rate was much lower at only 3%.

The link did not occur in cases where the opposite sex parent was obese. Professor Terry Wilkins, the director of the study, said “Any genetic link between obese parents and their children would be indiscriminate of gender.” This suggests to the scientists that obesity in children is a form of “behavioral sympathy” where the children copy the lifestyle of their same-sex parent.

If the study’s findings prove to be accurate, it could change policies and methods for fighting obesity. In recent years the focus has been on the children, but if obesity is behavioral it may be more effective prevention to turn the focus to the parents. Professor Wilkins comments that, “”It is the reverse of what we have thought and this has fundamental implications for policy. We should be targeting the parents and that is not something we have really done to date.”