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Sibling influence on obesity greater than parental, particularly among same sex
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Children who have a sibling with obesity are more likely to become obese themselves, no matter their birth order, according to research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Sibling influence was found to be greater than parental influence and strongest among same-sex pairs in an analysis of 10,244 American households.
Mark C. Pachucki, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues from Cornell and Duke Universities analyzed data collected from 1,948 adults with one or two children, including socio-demographic information, adult and child height and weight, physical activity and food environment. This was a substudy of the Family Health Habits Survey, which examined relationships between family health, food purchases and nutrient intake.
Logistic regression models were used to determine child obesity status, with parent and sibling obesity serving as key predictors; adjustments were made for various adult and child social and demographic confounders.
Children living in single-child households were 2.2 times more likely (SE=0.5) to be obese if a parent was obese. In two-child households, however, elder-child obesity was more strongly associated with having a younger sibling with obesity (OR=5.4, SE=1.9) than a parent with obesity (OR=2.3, SE=0.8). Younger-child obesity was associated with having an older sibling with obesity (OR=5.6, SE=1.9) but not with a parent with obesity.
“Younger children look up to their big brother or sister for behavioral cues, often seeking their approval, and siblings may spend more time with each other than with their parents, often eating and playing sports together,” Pachucki said in a press release.
Sibling obesity within families showed stronger patterns between children of the same sex than different. Physical activity was also significantly associated with childhood obesity status in the study.
Further research would be useful in determining how to work with families to prevent childhood obesity, according to the study.
“We need to try and replicate these analyses with other national datasets and think through how to use this information to improve family-based health intervention models,” Pachucki said.
Disclosure: The research was supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research program.
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