The Relationship between Obesity and Physical Activity of Children in the Spotlight of Their Parents’ Excessive Body Weight

Erik Sigmund and Dagmar Sigmundová
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Erik Sigmund: Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacký University Olomouc, 77147 Olomouc, Czech Republic
Dagmar Sigmundová: Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacký University Olomouc, 77147 Olomouc, Czech Republic

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 23, 1-14

Abstract: Background: The study reveals the relationships between daily physical activity (PA) and the prevalence of obesity in family members separated according to the participation of their offspring in organized leisure-time physical activity (OLTPA), and answers the question of whether the participation of children in OLTPA is associated with a lower prevalence of obesity in offspring with respect to parental PA and body weight level. Methods: The cross-sectional study included 1493 parent-child dyads (915/578 mother/father-child aged 4–16 years) from Czechia selected by two-stage stratified random sampling with complete data on body weight status and weekly PA gathered over a regular school week between 2013 and 2019. Results: The children who participated in OLTPA ≥ three times a week had a significantly lower ( p < 0.005) prevalence of obesity than the children without participation in OLTPA (5.0% vs. 11.1%). Even in the case of overweight/obese mothers/fathers, the children with OLTPA ≥ three times a week had a significantly lower ( p < 0.002) prevalence of obesity than the children without OLTPA (6.7%/4.2% vs. 14.9%/10.7%). Conclusions: The cumulative effect of regular participation in OLTPA and a child’s own PA is a stronger alleviator of children’s obesity than their parents’ risk of overweight/obesity.

Keywords: organized leisure-time physical activity; overweight; obesity; parent-child dyads; step counts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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