Higgins V, Dale A
Centre for Census & Survey Research, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Pediatr Obes. 2012 Jun;7(3):e22-6. doi: 10.1111/j.2047-6310.2012.00051.x. Epub 2012 Apr 11.
Some studies suggest that British Afro-Caribbean girls and Pakistani girls have higher levels of obesity than girls in the general population of England. However, the interplay between child obesity, ethnicity, mother's socioeconomic status and other parental characteristics is unclear and requires exploration.
This study examines the relationship between child ethnicity and child overweight/obesity after controlling for a wide range of mothers' socioeconomic characteristics and parental overweight/obesity.
Health Survey for England data (1999 and 2004) are used to examine 7047 children aged 2-15 years. Body mass index (BMI) for children is classified using the International Obesity Task Force age-specific BMI thresholds for obesity and overweight.
After controlling for a wide range of maternal socioeconomic characteristics and parental overweight/obesity, there are no ethnic differences in childhood overweight/obesity.
Having overweight or obese parents is a stronger predictor of childhood overweight/obesity than ethnic origin of the child. Interventions aimed at reducing childhood overweight/obesity should focus on parental characteristics rather than the ethnicity of the child, but they also need to be sensitive to gender and ethnic differences. Future research should aim to repeat the analyses using a measure of abdominal obesity such as waist circumference, if data become available.
一些研究表明，英国的非洲裔加勒比女孩和巴基斯坦女孩的肥胖水平高于英格兰普通人群中的女孩。然而，儿童肥胖、种族、母亲的社会经济地位和其他父母特征之间的相互作用尚不清楚，需要进行探索。
本研究在控制了广泛的母亲社会经济特征和父母超重/肥胖情况后，考察儿童种族与儿童超重/肥胖之间的关系。
利用英格兰健康调查数据（1999年和2004年）对7047名2至15岁的儿童进行研究。儿童的体重指数（BMI）根据国际肥胖特别工作组针对不同年龄的肥胖和超重BMI阈值进行分类。
在控制了广泛的母亲社会经济特征和父母超重/肥胖情况后，儿童期超重/肥胖不存在种族差异。
父母超重或肥胖比儿童的种族出身更能预测儿童期超重/肥胖。旨在减少儿童期超重/肥胖的干预措施应关注父母特征而非儿童的种族，但也需要对性别和种族差异保持敏感。如果有可用数据，未来的研究应旨在使用腰围等腹部肥胖指标重复进行分析。
