Parental health and adolescent obesity in the context of community disadvantage

This study examined whether parental physical health, including obesity, is associated with adolescent obesity considering the context and level of community disadvantage using survey data from 13,907 adolescents (12-18 years of age) and their parent(s) from Wave 1 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health as well as 1990 census tract data. Poor parental health, particularly obesity, is associated with adolescent obesity, even in disadvantaged contexts; however, community disadvantage moderates this relationship suggesting parental health factors are less salient in terms of adolescent obesity when community disadvantage is extreme. Strategies to reduce adolescent obesity should consider level of community disadvantage to determine whether efforts should target the community or family-level.