These are results from a prospective cohort of over 16,000 mom-child pairs followed over the years from childhood to adolescence.
This study found that:
- Risk was lower in mom’s who maintained:
- A normal BMI (18.5-24.9)
- Engaged in at least 150 min/week of moderate to vigorous activities
- Did not smoke
- Consumed alcohol in Moderation (5oz wine, 1.5oz hard alcohol or 12oz beer or less)
- Mom’s diet quality was not directly associated with obesity in her child (5th factor)
- When mom adhered to the above 4 plus good diet quality, her child had a 75% lower risk of obesity than from mom’s who did not adhere to any of the 5.
- If mom’s and their child both adhered to a healthy lifestyle (all 5 factors), the risk of obesity fell even further to 82% less than those who did not adhere to the 5 factors
- 3% of children developed obesity who did not have it at baseline
Article: Association Between Maternal Adherence to Healthy Lifestyle Practices and Risk of Obesity in the Offspring: Results from two prospective cohort studies of Mother-Child Pairs in the United States. Klodian D, et al. BMJ, 2018