Parental midlife body shape influences offspring self-perception of weight in a cohort of Australian adults

Abstract

Self-perception and measures of body weight and central adiposity are key indicators of a population’s attitude and level of concern regarding obesity. Parental weight has been shown to be a strong determinant of adult offspring weight. This study initially investigates the association between self-perception, and measured body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC), and characterised this association by perception type (pessimist, optimist and realist). We then examined the link between (mis) perception with midlife parental body shape, which may assist with targeted interventions for those misperceiving their weight. Data from a telephone survey (2007) and two biomedical stages (2004-06 and 2008-10) of the North West Adelaide Health Study (n=2710), a longitudinal cohort of Australian adults. The study included offspring measured BMI and WC and midlife parental body shape recalled from pictograms. Over half of participants misperceived their weight status, with heavier males more likely than females to underestimate their weight and females more likely to correctly estimate or overestimate their weight. Among males, higher maternal weight was associated with a greater risk of offspring being pessimistic about their weight than being an underweight/normal weight realist (BMI RR 2.03, 95% CI 1.01-4.07, p=0.046). Having an overweight mother was also associated with increased risk of both male and female offspring being obese optimists (BMI males RR 1.80, 95% CI 1.14-2.84, p=0.011/females RR 1.77, 95% CI 1.16-2.68, p=0.008; WC males RR 1.95, 95% CI 1.30-2.92, p=0.001/females RR 1.58, 95% CI 1.09-2.28, p=0.015). Higher paternal weight was also associated with being an obese realist for females (BMI RR 1.80, 95% CI 1.15-2.83, p=0.011; WC RR 1.95, 95% CI 1.23-3.09, p=0.004) but not males. Our findings suggest that having an obese parent, particularly an obese mother, may contribute to adult offspring’s misperception of their weight.