Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Obesity is a complex multifactorial health problem which is associated with numerous diseases including impaired physical functions and quality of life, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Obesity is not only affecting developed countries but its pronounced effects are also reflecting in developing countries including India and became a challenging health issue among adults and children throughout the world. Various international and national studies have shown that obesity tends to run in families. However there is pausity of data on camparative study of obesity and hypertension among punjabi population. Therefore in the present epidemiological study an attempt has been made to compare anthropometric and physiological variables among punjabi parents and their children. This study was conducted from period of August 2012- January 2013 on 102 parents (51 fathers & 51 mothers) and 105 children (68 sons & 37 daughters) of Kot Khalsa area of Amritsar, Punjab, India. Height and weight of each subject was measured using standard methodology and Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated. Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) and Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) was also measured. The results of present study have shown that combined prevelence of overweight/obesity among parents and children was found out to be 61.77% and 20%, respectively which was quite higher even than the populations of developed countries. The present results have also observed that when both parents were overweight/obese then prevelence of obesity among children was 4.5 times more than the children of normal weight parents. On the other hand if only mothers were overweight/obese then their children showed 2.5 times more prevelance of obesity than children having overweight/ obese fathers only. In case of blood pressure assessment, the prevelance of hypertension was found out to be 45.29% and 27.46% among fathers and mothers, respectively while in children, the prevalence of hypertension was 29.41% among sons and 29.42% among daughters. It was found out that when both parents were suffering from hypertension then prevelance of hypertension among children was about 11 times more than in children of normal blood pressure parents while children of hypertensive mothers only showed 2 times more prevalence of hypertenstion than children of hypertensive fathers only. The present study reveal that impact of maternal obesity and hypertension have greater impact on childhood obesity and hypertension than fathers. However, present findings needs to be confirmed by taking large sample in longitudinal studies and genetic linkage studies.

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