HOW DO THE HOME FOOD ENVIRONMENT, PARENTING PRACTICES, HEALTH BELIEFS AND SCREEN TIME AFFECT THE WEIGHT STATUS OF EUROPEAN CHILDREN? THE FEEL4DIABETES-STUDY

Secular trends from population-based studies reveal that the prevalence of childhood obesity has accelerated at an alarming rate, particularly in East and South Asia and plateaued in Northwest Europe and high-income English-speaking countries, although at high levels.

Maria Michelle Papamichael Ph.D., Eva Karaglani M.Sc., Theodora Boutsikou Ph.D., Vasilis Dedousis B.Sc., Greet Cardon Ph.D., Violeta Iotova Ph.D. f, Nevena Chakarova Ph.D., Natalya Usheva Ph.D., Katja Wikstr€om Ph.D., Rurik Imre Ph.D. j, Anett Si Rado Ph.D., Stavros Liatis Ph.D., Konstantinos Makrilakis Ph.D., Luis Moreno Ph.D., Yannis Manios Ph.D. on behalf of the Feel4Diabetes-Study Group

Abstract
Background: Childhood obesity remains one of the most significant challenges in public health globally.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the association between home food availability, parenting practices, health beliefs, screen time, and childhood overweight/obesity.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional analysis of 12 041 parentchild dyads from six European countries.
Details on the home food environment, parenting practices, health beliefs, and digital devices were collected by questionnaires.

Results: Permissive parenting or rewarding children with screen time at a frequency of rarely/never and parents disagreeing with the statement “I believe that people have little power to prevent disease” were negatively associated with childhood overweight/obesity; whereas being “physically active with my child” rarely/never was positively associated. Regarding the home environment, the availability of fruit rarely/never was positively associated with childhood overweight/obesity, whereas the absence of digital devices in the child’s room was negatively associated.

Conclusion: Findings from the present study suggested that future school- and community-based initiatives in Europe that aim to prevent childhood obesity should also target the home environment, parenting beliefs, and practices. Programs designed to educate, facilitate, and support parents to adopt a healthy and active lifestyle with their children would empower parents to be agents of good role models and are probably the most efficient ways forward to tackle the childhood obesity epidemic. Future longitudinal intervention studies are needed to confirm the long-term efficacy of positive parenting in reducing childhood overweight/obesity.

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Papamichael 2022 How do home environ wt Fee4D