Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: As per a new research, insufficient sleep and skipping the first meal of the day can raise the chances of obesity.
The research says that child obesity is linked to multiple factors such as mothers smoking in pregnancy, children skipping breakfast and not having a regular bedtime or sufficient sleep.
All three issues appear to be important factors in predicting whether a child will become overweight or obese.
Since they are early life factors, they can be modified and the research highlights the possibility that prompt intervention could curb the growth in childhood obesity.Being overweight or obese is linked to a child having poorer mental health, which can extend into adolescence and adulthood.
This poorer psychosocial well-being includes low self-esteem, unhappiness as well as risky behaviours such as cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption.
The research is based on the Millennium Cohort Study, a study of children born into 19,244 families in the UK between September 2000 and January 2002. Data on weight and height was collected when the children were 3, 5, 7 and 11.
This research used observational information which does not allow firm cause and effect conclusions to be drawn.
However the results are based on data from thousands of children and the researchers were able to take account of many of the influences on the development of a child`s weight.
(With IANS inputs)
