Moms' full-time work tied to childhood obesity

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The growing number of full-time working moms in the past decades could be one of the factors contributing to the concurrent rise in childhood obesity, new research hints. In a study of more than 8,500 UK adults followed since their birth in 1958, researchers found that the study participants' young children were 50 percent more likely to be overweight or obese than they themselves had been back in the 1960s. When the researchers looked at factors that could be associated with the trend, they found that mothers' full-time employment which was more common in the younger generation, appeared to be one. The findings, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology says, one possibility, according to the researchers is that the children of full-time working moms have fewer family meals or less healthy diets in general. Children of mothers who worked full-time were 48 percent more likely to be overweight or obese than children of non-working mothers. That was with factors such as socioeconomics, parents weight,and breastfeeding taken into account.