Introduction
Overweight and obesity are significant problems that are providing a challenge to public health in the 21st century. Children in Miami-Dade County also face the same issue leading to the need for the identification of suitable intervention strategies. Increased BMI is a severe problem, resulting in adverse health problems such as physical, emotional, and social problems. Additionally, children with obesity are linked with poor performance in school, social isolation, low quality of life, and a high risk of bullying and teasing. They are also associated with diseases such as osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, hypertension, and cancers, including esophageal, kidney, and colorectal. Children with obesity tend to have high BMI even in adulthood which affects them significantly. The current study PICOT is, in overweight and obese children in Miami-Dade County (P), does providing parental education on BMI(I), compared to providing no parental education (C), lead to a decrease in the child’s weight of 5% or more (O) in 6 months(T). Parental education is an intervention that this study seeks to identify its outcome in reducing a child’s weight.
Search Methods
The research used various keywords to ensure that suitable materials were included in the research study. The database used includes science direct, BookSc, World Health Organization, Publication Med, Google Scholar, and the free library. The search term used includes “Effect of parental education on BMI,” “the importance of parental Education in reducing Obesity,” and “BMI, parental education, and Bodyweight.” Article title, keywords and abstracts were checked to identify if the research is suitable to be included in the research study. Additionally, the main text of the research articles was also checked for relevancy.
Synthesis of Literature
Seum et al. (2022) study involved 460 out of the 3,840 adolescents and children in the BELLA study in Germany. The selected participants were aged between 11 and 17 years. Quantitative methodology was used to measure body mass index, parental education, and other potential mediators such as breakfast consumption, physical activity, consumption of sugary beverages, screen time, quality of life, and mental health problems (Seum et al., 2022). The key findings are that low parental education results in high BMI. This study provides information on the effects of providing parental education on BMI.
Muthuri et al. (2016) used a sample of 4752 children from 12 countries, including Canada, the UK, the USA, China, Kenya, South Africa, Colombia, India, Australia, Portugal, Finland, and Brazil. Quantitative methodology was used where measures such as parental education and child overweight were assessed. The key finding shows that parental education in countries with low economic status has a positive relationship with increased weight among children (Muthuri et al., 2016). In high economic status, there is a negative relationship between parental education and child weight status. This research is useful in identifying the importance of parental education in reducing child weight.
Naess et al. (2018) used a cohort of 4424 parent-offspring from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study in Norway. The study uses a quantitative methodology where measures such as physical activity and BMI were recorded. The main finding of this study shows that parental education is significant in altering weight changes (Naess et al., 2018). The study is important since it portrays that parental education has a substantial impact on reducing weight among adolescents’ BMI.
Kim et al. (2016) study involved the recruitment of forty-two obese children and their parents. The study used a randomized control trial with pre and post-test. The measurements used in the study include parental outcome and children outcome. The main finding of this study shows that the 5-week period was ineffective in reducing BMI (Kim et al., 2016). This study is critical because it provides the significance of parental education in lowering children’s BMI based on time.
Alqarni et al. (2017) used multiple ambulatory clinics at King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital. The period of study was four months, with a sample size of 328 children. They utilized a quantitative methodology where measures such as height and weight were recorded. The finding of this study reveals that parental education is not significant in determining the BMI of children (Alqarni et al., 2017). This study is helpful in explaining the relationship between parental education and children’s weight.
Cook and Tseng (2019) used a sample of Asian American aged 12 to 19 years. Most of the Asian American children included in the study were born in the United States of America. The included children have at least one parent with a college degree. The research uses a quantitative methodology where various demographic measures were included. The study’s main finding portrays that higher parental education is crucial in reducing overweight (Cook & Tseng, 2019). This article is vital in providing information regarding parental education’s impact.
Liu et al. (2018) involve fourth, fifth, and sixth-grade students with their parents, from multiple elementary schools in Shenyang, China. The study used quantitative methodology where various variables such as household characteristics and education level. The study’s main finding shows that the father’s education level is crucial in determining the obesity of girls and other children in urban (Liu et al., 2018). This study is essential in showing the effect of gender mediation among parents and children.
Hsu et al. (2022) study included maternal and children aged 2 to 9 years old. The study used a quantitative methodology where maternal education, income level, and marital status were recorded. The critical finding is maternal education and BMI is significant in determining the child’s BMI (Hsu et al., 2022). This study is crucial in showing the relationship between the education level of the parent, BMI, and that of the child.
Comparison of Articles
Several studies have shown that parental education is crucial in reducing a child’s weight. Seum et al. (2022) show that parental education is significant in reducing a child’s weight. The limitation of this study is the variables that were used during data collection. Muthuri et al. (2016) findings are different from other researchers, such as Seum et al. (2022), Hsu et al. (2022), Cook and Tseng (2019), and Naess et al. (2018) despite using the same quantitative methodology. Hsu et al. (2022) used BMI and parental education to portray the relationship between the two factors in lowering a child’s weight. Liu et al. (2018) study shows that gender variation in parents and wealth determines the risk of obesity in children. The study suggests that the father’s education level is negatively related to the risk of obesity in children. Muthuri et al. (2016) argue that the effect of parental education in reducing a child’s weight can either be positive or negative. This is controversial since the study suggests that parental education has both effects of reducing and increasing weight gain. However, the study uses the economic level of different regions to explain the relationship, which still has controversy.
The period of the study has a crucial impact in determining the effect of parental education on the reduction of the child’s weight. Kim et al. (2016) used the same methodology as Seum et al. (2022) and Naess et al. (2018). However, the finding of Kim et al. (2016) shows that parental education is insignificant because the study was conducted for five weeks. Other studies took more than one year to report their findings, leading to positive or negative results. The findings are similar to Alqarni et al. (2017). Alqarni et al. (2017) used four months, which explains why their findings are consistent with Kim et al. (2016). The findings suggest that most studies’ limitations depend on the methodology used, where certain variables are not significant or are not reported as required.
Suggestions for Future Research
The available literature materials are based on education level, parental wealth, and occupation. The gap in the literature is that there are few materials that have focused on the effect of parental education on BMI. Most of the materials have focused on the general education level, making it challenging to identify the impact of BMI education based on literature. Future studies need to focus more on identifying the effect of parental education on BMI to provide a large sample of materials that will provide necessary information on the topic.
Conclusion
Parental education is significant in reducing the child’s weight. Parents with higher education and education on BMI tend to reduce their children’s exposure to weight gain.
References
Alqarni, F., Alariefy, M., Albishri, A., Bajubair, A., Almuzaini, A., Alzahrani, E., & Bandar, W. (2017). Do parental education and occupation affects children’s body mass index (BMI)?International Journal of Advanced Research, 5(12), 1381-1388.
Cook, W., & Tseng, W. (2019). Associations of Asian Ethnicity and parental education with overweight in Asian American children and adolescents: An analysis of 2011–2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 23(4), 504-511.
Hsu, P., Hwang, F., Chien, M., Mui, W., & Lai, J. (2022). The impact of maternal influences on childhood obesity.Scientific Reports, 12(1), 1-9.
Kim, H., Park, J., Park, K., Lee, M., & Ham, O. (2016). Parent involvement intervention in developing weight management skills for both parents and overweight/obese children.Asian Nursing Research, 10(1), 11-17.
Liu, Y., Ma, Y., Jiang, N., Song, S., Fan, Q., & Wen, D. (2018). Interaction between parental education and household wealth on children’s obesity risk. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(8), 1-12.
Muthuri, S., Onywera, V., Tremblay, M., Broyles, S., Chaput, J., & Fogelholm, M. et al. (2016). Relationships between parental education and overweight with childhood overweight and physical activity in 9–11-year-old children: Results from a 12-Country Study. Plos One, 11(8), 1-8.
Naess, M., Sund, E., Holmen, T., & Kvaløy, K. (2018). Implications of parental lifestyle changes and education level on adolescent offspring weight: a population based cohort study – The HUNT Study, Norway. BMJ Open, 8(8), 1-7.
Seum, T., Meyrose, A., Rabel, M., Schienkiewitz, A., & Ravens-Sieberer, U. (2022). Pathways of parental education on children’s and adolescent’s body mass index: The mediating roles of behavioral and psychological factors.Frontiers in Public Health, 10, 1-9.