Investigating the association between parental educational status and offspring obesity risk using the Japan Environment and Children's Study

Masahiro Noda; Satomi Yoshida; Tetsuya Tsuchida; Masato Takeuchi; Chihiro Kawakami; Koji Kawakami; Shuichi Ito; Japan Environment and Children's Study Group

doi:10.1111/ijpo.70019

Investigating the association between parental educational status and offspring obesity risk using the Japan Environment and Children's Study

Pediatr Obes. 2025 May 6:e70019. doi: 10.1111/ijpo.70019. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Masahiro Noda¹, Satomi Yoshida^{1

2}, Tetsuya Tsuchida^{1

3}, Masato Takeuchi^{1

4}, Chihiro Kawakami³, Koji Kawakami¹, Shuichi Ito³; Japan Environment and Children's Study Group

Collaborators

Japan Environment and Children's Study Group:
Michihiro Kamijima, Shin Yamazaki, Yukihiro Ohya, Reiko Kishi, Nobuo Yaegashi, Koichi Hashimoto, Chisato Mori, Shuichi Ito, Zentaro Yamagata, Hidekuni Inadera, Takeo Nakayama, Tomotaka Sobue, Masayuki Shima, Seiji Kageyama, Narufumi Suganuma, Shoichi Ohga, Takahiko Katoh

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacoepidemiology, Graduate School of Medicine and Public Health, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
² Division of Social Medicine, Department of Clinical Medicine, Institute of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan.
³ Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
⁴ Graduate School of Public Health, Shizuoka Graduate University of Public Health, Shizuoka, Japan.

PMID: 40329544
DOI: 10.1111/ijpo.70019

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated an inverse relationship between socioeconomic status and childhood obesity in affluent nations, with parental education as a key factor. However, the meaning of socioeconomic indicators may vary by race and country, and research on this topic in Asian countries is limited.

Objectives: We investigated the association between parents' educational status and childhood obesity in Japan.

Methods: We utilized data from Japan's birth cohort, recruiting participants from 2011 to 2014, and included 49 564 children. Parental educational status was categorized into four groups: both parents with lower education (LM-LF), mothers with higher education and fathers with lower education (HM-LF), mothers with lower education and fathers with higher education (LM-HF), and both parents with higher education (HM-HF). Multivariable logistic regression analyzed the association between parental education and overweight/obesity among 4-year-old children.

Results: Of the participants, 17.9%, 16.9%, 16.2% and 15.4% were overweight/obese; and 5.5%, 4.6%, 4.4% and 3.8% were obese in LM-LF, HM-LF, LM-HF and HM-HF groups, respectively. When the reference group was defined as children born to parents with HM-HF, the adjusted odds ratios for overweight/obesity in LM-LF, HM-LF and LM-HF were 1.13 (95% confidence intervals [CI]: 1.06-1.21), 1.08 (95% CI: 1.01-1.15) and 1.03 (95% CI: 0.95-1.12); and those for obesity were 1.34 (95% CI: 1.20-1.50), 1.16 (95% CI: 1.04-1.31) and 1.11 (95% CI: 0.96-1.28), respectively.

Conclusions: Lower educational status in both parents was associated with overweight/obesity among 4-year-old children in Japan. Public policies might target parents with lower education to prevent childhood obesity.

Keywords: children; education status; obesity; offspring; parent.