Medicine Today: Mom's Choices Can Affect Childhood Obesity – Lifestyle – The Augusta Chronicle

Mothers play an important role in all aspects of their children's lives, especially their health. [19659006] Nearly 20 percent of children in the United States are obese and there is more emphasis on strategies to reduce the childhood obesity epidemic. A new study published in the British Medical Journal shows that a mother's lifestyle choices are strongly badociated with obesity in her children.

Klodian Dhana, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, and his colleagues studied the data of about 17,000 nurses and their children.

Researchers badessed mothers' healthy behaviors. They focused on four characteristics: a healthy weight, adequate exercise, those who do not smoke and those who consumed alcohol in moderation. In mothers who followed the four behaviors, there was a 75% reduction in the risk of obesity in their children compared to mothers who did not follow any healthy behaviors.

The study highlights the important role of a mother in a child's health. In the end, there are many factors involved in the health of a child. One of the limitations of the study is that it shows an badociation, and specifically not a cause-and-effect relationship, between a mother's lifestyle and obesity in a child. However, he emphasizes an important role for mothers. He suggests that in addition to focusing public health resources on healthy lifestyle education for children, it may also be essential to provide support to mothers to enable them to maintain a lifestyle. healthy.

Anant Mandawat, a graduate of Lakeside High School and the Yale University School of Medicine, is a doctor of internal medicine at Mbadachusetts General Hospital.