|
Middle-class mothers who work long hours increase the risk of their offspring being overweight or obese, according to an astonishing new study. Research revealed by The Independent on Sunday for the first time will turn perceived wisdom on its head with the revelation that the nation's higher-paid working mothers bear much of the responsibility for the country's ticking obesity time bomb, and not the poorer working-class families who are usually blamed. More shockingly, the risk of childhood obesity soars in direct correlation with family income. Children in families where household income is greater than £33,000 are significantly more likely to be overweight or obese than youngsters from families with the lowest incomes, the new study shows. And in higher income households, the longer a mother worked each week, the greater the risk of the child being overweight.
"Long hours of maternal employment, rather than lack of money, may impede young children's access to healthy foods and physical activity," say the researchers from the Institute of Child Health at University College London (UCL) and Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh), writing in the International Journal of Obesity this week. Children from families with incomes of £22,000 to £33,000 were 10 per cent more likely to be overweight or obese than children from families in the lowest income group, the study found. "For every 10 hours a mother worked, children from households with an annual income of £22,000 or higher were more likely to be overweight than children from the lowest income group," researchers wrote. Where the annual income was £33,000 or more, children from those households were 15 per cent more likely to be overweight than children from the lowest income group.
Compounding the misery for working mothers, the study found that children's weight problems got worse if mothers relied on a nanny to hold the fort while they pursued their careers. Children in childcare are 24 per cent more likely to be overweight or obese than children cared for by their mother or her partner. The UCL/Gosh research links the explosion in childhood obesity with the rise in women going out to work, particularly those with young children. In 1984, 27 per cent of women with children under five in the UK were employed, while in 2004, 59 per cent of married or cohabiting women and 34 per cent of lone parents were employed. No link was found between the hours worked by the father or partner and weight problems.
The findings have dismayed health experts. Dr Susan Jebb, head of nutrition and health at the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research, said: "Obesity is something that affects middle-class families as well, and that's important because many people take it to be an issue which only affects low-income groups and it is absolutely not the case. This is a wake-up call for middle-class families and it will hopefully get them to engage with the problem."
Colin Waine said: "I do not wish to condemn these women but I do think the priority has to be the health of the child and its continued health into adulthood. We are in danger of raising a generation of young people with a much shorter life expectancy than previous generations. "If women are going back to work early after having children they are unlikely to be breast-feeding up to the recommended six months and the babies will go on to formula milk. If women are working there will be less time for food preparation and more resorting to convenience food. The types of food children are snacking on are going to be energy-dense and there will be more sedentary hours than activity hours."
|
