Do children of parents with overweight and obesity have an increased risk of developing obesity and changes in the blood pressure?

Background. If parents and children share genetic and socioecological factors, it is expected that their nutritional status also shares a close relationship. The objective of this study was to identify and evaluate the association between nutritional status and blood pressure of parents and their children. Methods. Weight, height, waist circumference and blood pressure were measured in parents and school-age children. We calculated the risk of obesity in children according to the nutritional status of the parents. Blood pressure was evaluated by linear regression using the parent's blood pressure as an independent variable. Results. Included in the study were 205 obese children and 209 eutrophic children. The frequency of obesity in parents of obese children was 39% for mothers and 45.1% for fathers. In parents of eutrophic children, the frequency was 15.7% and 17.1%, respectively, for mothers and fathers. Children whose parents had higher blood pressure values had higher levels of blood pressure than children whose parents had lower values of blood pressure. Children of overweight mothers showed a risk of 4.5 (p <0.001) to present with obesity, whereas in children of obese mothers the risk increased to 6.5 (p <0.001). Conclusions. A strong association was demonstrated between nutritional status of parents with the presence of obesity and high blood pressure in their children.