Parent behavioral and psychosocial risk and protective factors associated with child obesity in Delhi, India
Abstract
This study used data from the "Addressing the Emerging Obesity Epidemic in India: A Social Marketing Approach" to address three aims: 1) evaluate the association between parent and child weight status in Delhi, India; 2) examine the association between parenting monitoring and encouragement behaviors and child dietary, physical activity, sedentary behaviors and weight status in Delhi, India; and 3) examine the association between parent dietary, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors and child dietary, physical activity, sedentary behaviors, and weight status in Delhi, India. The study was cross-sectional by design and collected anthropometric and behavioral-psychosocial measures from 6th and 8th grade children and parents in six private schools in Delhi, India. Overall, this study found 29.6% of children and 77.7% of parents to be overweight/obese, which are similar to levels found in the US (Flegal, Carroll, Kit, & Ogden, 2012; Ogden et al., 2014). Parent weight status was found to be a strong predictor of child weight status after controlling for child grade and sex. However, while maternal weight status (OR=1.51, 95% CI: 1.04-2.20) was associated with child weight status, paternal weight status was not (OR=1.10, 95% CI: .810-1.48). This association was particularly strong between mothers and sons (OR=2.13, 95% CI: 1.39-3.27). Parents reported high levels of monitoring and encouragement (37%-87%). Several parent monitoring and encouragement behaviors were positively and significantly associated with child overweight/obesity and levels of the behaviors in children: monitoring child sedentary behavior (OR=1.08, p=0.000), encouraging limiting unhealthy food consumption (OR=1.08, p=0.000), and encouraging limiting sedentary behavior (OR=1.18, p=0.050). While only parent energy-dense (ED) food and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption were significantly associated with child overweight/obesity (ED was negatively associated: OR=0.70, p=0.26; while SSB was positively associated: OR=1.63, p=0.018), all parent dietary behaviors were significantly and positively associated with those behaviors in children. Parent moderate to vigorous exercise was the only physical activity or sedentary behavior significantly associated with child overweight/obesity and that behavior in children (OR=1.18, p=0.011; Beta=0.30, p=0.000). The results of this study provide initial evidence that parent weight status and dietary behaviors are strong predictors of child weight status and dietary behaviors in Delhi, India. Future research should use more robust methods to continue to explore the relationship between parenting behaviors (monitoring and encouraging) and parent behaviors with child overweight/obesity to better understand the nature of the relationship. Interventions to begin to address child overweight and obesity should include parents as direct targets, particularly for modeling healthy dietary behaviors and achieving healthy weight status.
Subject Area
Public health|South Asian Studies
Recommended Citation
Greene-Cramer, Blanche Johanna, "Parent behavioral and psychosocial risk and protective factors associated with child obesity in Delhi, India" (2015). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI3720081.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI3720081