Kids inherit obesity from parents: Research

Research is very relevant to India as around 30 million people in the country are obese

About 35 to 40 per cent children from all over the world inherit obesity from parents, says a recent research undertaken by University of Sussex even as medical experts here also feel that a similar situation prevails in India.

This research is very much relevant to Indian population as around 30 million people in the country are obese, medical experts say.

The research had considered the BMI (Body Mass Index) of the Obese children and their patients across six countries including UK, USA, China, Indonesia, Spain and Mexico, thereby covering all the key geographies of the world.

Professor Peter Dolton, the lead author of the study says the pattern of results is remarkably consistent across all the countries after analysing the data of over 100,000 sample spread across the two highest obese nations (US and UK) and the two least obese nations i.E. China and Indonesia.

In his research, Dolton noted that the study gives an important and rare insight into how obesity is transmitted across generations in both developed and developing countries and also indicated that the process of intergenerational transmission is the same across all the different countries.

Commenting on this research, leading obesity surgeon Dr M G Bhat from Apollo Spectra and Manipal Hospitals in Bangalore said, "in many of my patients, I have observed that they also have obese children pointing out to family factors and genetic inheritance."

"Researches have shown that Genes appear to play an important role in the development of obesity in childhood. Genes may influence behaviour through appetite or by making it harder to resist food," Bhatt said.