Family History of Obesity and/or Diabetes

It has long been known that obesity runs in families, although the determinants of that heritability are not likely to be all genetic, with parental influence on dietary and physical activity patterns also playing a role. Whitaker et al. examined the influence of parental obesity on the development of childhood obesity and its persistence into adulthood. They found that having at least one obese parent greatly increased one’s risk of becoming obese as an adult. However, the risks of adult obesity were magnified in subjects who had an obese parent and who were also obese as children. In younger children this effect was small or nonexistent (OR = 1.3 for children aged 1–2 years) but was very pronounced in older children (OR=17.5 in 15- to 17-year olds). Thus it would appear that identifying children with obese parents and intervening early to prevent unhealthy weight gain may allow the progression to adult obesity to be prevented.
It has also been well recognized for some time that the children of parents with type 2 diabetes are particularly susceptible themselves to type 2 diabetes should they gain weight. Recent studies have found that this susceptibility is much stronger in children whose mother, rather than father, had type 2 diabetes and have attributed this problem to the diabetic intrauterine environment. Therefore, preventive measures should properly be focused on the children of obese adults with or without a family history of diabetes and pregnant women with a history of type 2 diabetes.