Shared correlates of maternal and childhood overweight in Cameroon: a cross-sectional analysis of demographic and health survey data

Abstract

Background Overweight parents are likelier to bear overweight babies, who are likelier to grow into overweight adults. Understanding the shared risks of being overweight between the mother-child dyad is essential for targeted life course interventions. In this study, we aimed to identify such risk factors in Cameroon. Methods We conducted secondary data analysis using Cameroon’s 2018 Demographic and Health Surveys. We used weighted multilevel binary logistic regressions to examine individual, household, and community correlates of maternal (15–49 years) and child (under five years) overweight. Results We retained 4511 complete records for childhood and 4644 for maternal analysis. We found that 37% [95%CI:36–38%] of mothers and 12% [95%CI:11–13%] of children were overweight or obese. Many environmental and sociodemographic factors were positively associated with maternal overweight, namely urban residence, wealthier households, higher education, parity and being a Christian. Childhood overweight was positively associated with a child being older and a mother being overweight, a worker, or a Christian. Therefore, only religion affected both mothers overweight (aOR: 0.71[95%CI:0.56–0.91]) and childhood overweight (aOR 0.67[95%CI: 0.5–0.91]). Most of the potentially shared factors only indirectly affected childhood overweight through maternal overweight. Conclusion Besides religion, which affects both mothers and childhood overweight (with the Muslim faith being protective), much of childhood overweight is not directly explained by many of the observed determinants of maternal overweight. These determinants are likely to influence childhood overweight indirectly through maternal overweight. Extending this analysis to include unobserved correlates such as physical activity, dietary, and genetic characteristics would produce a more comprehensive picture of shared mother-child overweight correlates.

Navigating the nutritional paradox: The impact of sustainable development targets on childhood wasting and overweight prevalence

“…At the same time, the between-country differences, especially in the five countries where we found a reduction, may be accounted for by in-country socioeconomic characteristics and contexts that have been previously identified [ 48 – 52 ]. The effect of the socioeconomic profile, including education, employment, and living conditions, on childhood overweight has been shown to differ in magnitude between socioeconomic profile backgrounds across different countries [ 49 , 50 , 53 , 54 ].…”