Parental marital status and childhood overweight and obesity in Norway: a nationally representative cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Sociodemographic changes in Norway and other western industrialised countries, including family structure and an increasing proportion of cohabiting and divorced parents, might affect the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity issues. We aimed to examine whether parental marital status was associated with general and abdominal obesity among children. We also sought to explore whether the associations differed by gender.

Design

Cross-sectional.

Setting

127 primary schools across Norway.

Participant

3166 third graders (mean age 8.3 years) participating in the nationally representative Norwegian Child Growth Study in 2010.

Measurements

Height, weight and waist circumference were objectively measured. The main outcome measures were general

SUBMITTER: Biehl A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4054642 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature