Obesity risk stronger among siblings
While it is well known that a child’s risk of obesity is greater if he or she has obese family members, whether the type of relationship affects that risk has not been given as much attention. A new report led by an investigator at the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital finds that the risk associated with having an obese sibling is more than twice as great as that of having an obese parent, and that risk is even stronger among siblings of the same gender. The study will appear in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) and has been released online. ‘I went into this study expecting that, given parents’ oversized roles in their children’s lives, parental obesity would have a stronger association than a sibling’s obesity; but I was wrong.’ — Mark Pachucki “It’s well known that diet and physical activity are key...