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Epidemiology

Transmission of energy-saving efficiency from obese parents to their offspring: the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007–2011

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 70, pages 511–516 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Concerns of a growing obesity epidemic have increased since the association between obesity in parents and that in offspring was reported. However, the evidence regarding whether the energy-saving efficiency of obese parents is conveyed to their offspring and the duration of the expression of such transmitted efficiency is limited.

Subjects/Methods:

We included 7647 matching sets of parent–offspring trios from South Korea. Multiple linear regression models were performed to estimate the energy-saving efficiency, as assessed by the associations between energy intake and obesity-related indices (waist-to-height ratio, waist circumference and body mass index z-score), and to compare the energy-saving efficiency of offspring of obese and non-obese parents. All analyses were based on a complex sample design and were stratified by gender and age.

Results:

We identified a parental influence on obesity, that is, the more obese the parent, the higher the obesity-related indices of their offspring, in both genders and all age groups. The energy-saving efficiency of child offspring was highest when both parents were obese and lowest when both were non-obese; this difference was significant (P<0.05) with regard to the energy-saving efficiency of all types of intake studied, except fat. However, the energy-saving efficiency of obese and non-obese parents did not differ when their offspring were adolescents and adults.

Conclusions:

The critical window for transmission of energy-saving efficiency is limited to childhood. These findings suggest that children of obese parents should be more emphatically advised to maintain a balanced diet and to engage in regular physical activity.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Ministry of Environment as an Environmental Health Center Program. We thank the KNHANES 2007–2011 participants and investigators as well as the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for making the public data available.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan

    Y Kim

  2. Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

    H Kim

  3. Institute of Environmental Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Y-C Hong

  4. Environmental Health Center, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Y-C Hong

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  1. Y Kim
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Correspondence to Y-C Hong.

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Kim, Y., Kim, H. & Hong, YC. Transmission of energy-saving efficiency from obese parents to their offspring: the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007–2011. Eur J Clin Nutr 70, 511–516 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2015.172

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