Parental influence on children’s cardiometabolic risk factors and cardiorespiratory fitness

The parental influence on children’s cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRF) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) has been\r\nonly marginally investigated. Hence, this study aimed to investigate whether parental CMRF and CRF were associated\r\nwith those of their school-aged children. This cross-sectional analysis included 53 Italian school-children along with\r\ntheir parents. CMRF were assessed by measuring the waist circumference (WC) and by computing the waist-to-height\r\nratio (WHtR), whereas CRF was estimated with the six-minute walking test (6MWT). A multiple stepwise backward\r\nelimination regression analysis was performed to investigate associations between parental and children’s features.\r\nBoth parental WC and WHtR were associated with children’s ones (R2 = 0.28, p = .005; R2 = 0.18, p = .041). Maternal\r\nWC and WHtR strongly predicted primary-school children’s CMRF (R2 = 0.54, p = .005; R2 = 0.67, p = .001). No\r\nsignificant parental influence was observed for CRF. This study investigated, for the first time, the associations between\r\nparental CMRF and CRF, and those of their children. Our results suggest that children’s WC and WHtR, but not CRF,\r\ncan be predicted by their parent’s parameters. Maternal CMRF may have a stronger influence on children’s ones,\r\ncompared to fathers, particularly during primary-school years.