Obesity may Not Weigh Down Your Child’s Behavior

Highlights:

A total of 41,000 eight-year-old children were studied in order to establish a link between obesity and children’s mood
A child’s BMI may have little or no effect on their mood and anxiety //
Interventions to improve children’s anxiety and behavior by maintaining their weight may not prove to be helpful

A study reveals that childhood BMI does not influence children’s mood or behavioral issues.

The findings suggest that prior research that found a substantial association between childhood obesity and mental health may have overlooked family genetics and environmental influences.

BMI and Mental Health Link Among Children

Obese children are more likely to have depression, anxiety, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the nature of the link between obesity and certain mental health disorders is unclear. Obesity may exacerbate mental health issues or vice versa. Alternatively, a youngster’s environment may contribute to both obesity and mental and behavioral issues.

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‘Childhood obesity prevention initiatives are unlikely to have a significant impact on the prevalence of mental disorders as there is no established link between a child’s BMI and their mood and behavior.’

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“We need to better understand the relationship between childhood obesity and mental health,” says lead author Amanda Hughes, Senior Research Associate in Epidemiology at the Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, UK. “This requires teasing apart the contributions of child and parent genetics and the environmental factors affecting the whole family.”

Hughes and colleagues looked at genetic and mental health data from 41,000 eight-year-old children and their parents from the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study and the Norwegian Medical Birth Registry.

They examined the association between children’s body mass index (BMI)—a weight-to-height ratio—and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and ADHD. They also took parental genetics and BMI into consideration to help isolate the effects of the children’s heredity from the influence of other factors that affect the entire family. The situation is unclear. Obesity may exacerbate mental health issues or vice versa. Alternatively, a youngster’s environment may contribute to both obesity and mental and behavioral issues.

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The study discovered that a child’s BMI did not affect their anxiety levels. In addition, there was inconsistent research regarding whether a child’s BMI influenced their depression or ADHD symptoms.

“At least for this age group, the impact of a child’s own BMI appears small. For older children and adolescents, it could be more important,” says Neil Davies, Professor at University College London, UK.

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When the researchers investigated the effect of the parents’ BMI on the children’s mental health, they discovered minimal evidence that the parents’ BMI influenced the children’s ADHD or anxiety symptoms. The findings revealed that having a mother with a higher BMI was associated with depressive symptoms in children, but there was a minimal indication of any relationship between the child’s mental health and the father’s BMI.

“Overall, the influence of a parent’s BMI on a child’s mental health seems to be limited. As a result, interventions to reduce parents’ BMIs are unlikely to have widespread benefits for children’s mental health,” says Alexandra Havdahl, Research Professor at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway.

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“Our results suggest that interventions designed to reduce child obesity are unlikely to make big improvements in child mental health. On the other hand, policies that target social and environmental factors linked to higher body weights and that target poor child mental health directly may be more beneficial,” Hughes concludes.

Source-Medindia