Effects of parental origins and length of residency on adiposity measures andnutrition in urban middle school students: a cross-sectional study

• Published in: International journal of pediatric endocrinology 2013-10, Vol.2013 (1), Article 16
• Main Authors: Kuryan, Ranita, Frankel, David, Cervoni, Barbie, Koltun, Audrey, Lowell, Barbara, Altshuler, Lisa, Rosenbaum, Michael, Shelov, Steven P, Carey, Dennis E, Accacha, Siham, Fennoy, Ilene, Rapaport, Robert, Rosenfeld, Warren, Ten, Svetlana, Speiser, Phyllis W
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Food habits; Health aspects; Junior high school students; Obesity; Obesity in children; Parent and child; Prevalence studies (Epidemiology); Risk factors; School enrollment; Type 2 diabetes
• ISSN: 1687-9856; 1687-9848; 1687-9856
• DOI: 10.1186/1687-9856-2013-16

Background The prevalence of obesity in U.S. has been rising at an alarming rate,particularly among Hispanic, African, and Asian minority groups. This trendis due in part to excessive calorie consumption and sedentary lifestyle. Wesought to investigate whether parental origins influence eating behaviors inhealthy urban middle school students. Methods A multiethnic/racial population of students (N = 182) enrolled inthe ROAD (Reduce Obesity and Diabetes) Study, a school-based trial to assessclinical, behavioral, and biochemical risk factors for adiposity and itsco-morbidities completed questionnaires regarding parental origins, lengthof US residency, and food behaviors and preferences. The primary behavioralquestionnaire outcome variables were nutrition knowledge, attitude,intention and behavior, which were then related to anthropometric measuresof waist circumference, BMI z-scores, and percent body fat. Two-way analysisof variance was used to evaluate the joint effects of number of parents bornin the U.S. and ethnicity on food preference and knowledge score. TheTukey-Kramer method was used to compute pairwise comparisons to determinewhere differences lie. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyzethe joint effects of number of parents born in the US and student ethnicity,along with the interaction term, on each adiposity measure outcome. Pearsoncorrelation coefficients were used to examine the relationships betweenmaternal and paternal length of residency in the US with measures ofadiposity, food preference and food knowledge. Results African Americans had significantly higher BMI, waist circumference and bodyfat percentage compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Neitherethnicity/race nor parental origins had an impact on nutrition behavior.Mothers' length of US residency positively correlated withstudents' nutrition knowledge, but not food attitude, intention orbehavior. Conclusions Adiposity measures in children differ according to ethnicity and race. Incontrast, food behaviors in this middle school sample were not influenced byparental origins. Longer maternal US residency benefited offspring in termsof nutrition knowledge only. We suggest that interventions to preventobesity begin in early childhood.