Abstract
Emphasis has been placed on the importance of exercise in the prevention and treatment of obesity. The relationships of physical activity, caloric intake, socioeconomic status (SES), and race to parental and childhood adiposity were studied using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1971-1974 (NHANES I). Subjects in this analysis included all children aged 1-19 years who had at least one parent included in the survey (n=3656 parent-child pairs). Highly significant correlations of parent-child adiposity were found (p≤.001). Correlations were higher in the 12-19 year old group (r=.33 for girls and r=.20 for boys), than in the 1-11 year old group (r=.16 for both sexes). Children whose adiposity (as measured by the log body mass index) was greater than 95 percentile for age and sex were classified as obese. These obese children reported significantly less physical activity than the nonobese children (p≤.0001), yet their caloric intake, SES, and race did not differ. Parents of obese children were fatter than other parents in the sample (p≤.0001). Like their children, these parents reported significantly less regular exercise than the parents of the nonobese (p≤.005), with no difference in caloric intake, SES, or race. Obese children in the NHANES I came from households in which parents and children were less physically active than in other households, yet these households were not different with respect to SES, race, and caloric intake. Exercise appears to play a role in the prevention of obesity in children and their parents.
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Hammer, L. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND ADIPOSITY IN CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS. Pediatr Res 18 (Suppl 4), 183 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198404001-00543
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198404001-00543