Background: Neglectful feeding and physical activity (PA) practices by parents are associated with development of adulthood obesity. The Arab world has reported an alarming increase of adulthood obesity and childhood neglect by parents, yet have not studied the association between the two variables. Aims: The objectives of this study were to evaluate two parental negligence parameters (feeding style and social activity) associated with adulthood obesity and to identify the level of parental negligence on a customized parent neglect scale.
Methods: In total 450 adult subjects 18-30 were screened for body mass index (BMI) values. 240 subjects fulfilling the criteria for the study were divided into two groups normal weight (N Gp) (n = 150) and overweight/obese (Ov/Ob Gp) (n = 90) groups. A questionnaire was formulated through a dual moderator focus group discussion, which was then tested in a prepilot and a pilot study (qualitative) to determine its validity (content and criterion) and reliability (repeated measurement) before distributing to the parents of both groups. Physical activity and screen time were also recorded for the subjects and their parents. Chi square test for association/difference between two categorical variables and Pearsons correlation coefficient for BMI correlation were employed.
Results: Parenting parameters like maternal age, consanguineous marriage, breastfeeding duration, formula food introduction, and maternal smoking were significantly different between studied groups. Higher physical inactivity was observed among parents (father/mother 53%) and subjects (80%). The higher amount of screen time (73% ≥ 60-100 h/week) was found in the Ov/Ob Gp that significantly differed with the other group. Maternal BMI was positively related to the subjects BMI. Parents of obese subjects were found negligent in feeding style and very negligent for social activity on a parent neglect scale as compared to the parents of the normal weight subjects.
Conclusion: Parents are responsible for developing healthy eating habits and competitive social behavior among their children. Parents need to practice the same to influence changes in their children during their early childhood, as well as when their children grow into adults. Negligent parenting in the studied parameters were found to increase the risk of developing adulthood obesity and should be considered as a potential marker for adult obesity.
Keywords: Body mass index; child negligence; feeding practices; parenting style; screen time.