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Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique logoLink to Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique
. 2010 Sep 1;101(5):365–368. doi: 10.1007/BF03404854

Prevention Potential of Risk Factors for Childhood Overweight

Stefan Kuhle 15, Alexander C Allen 25, Paul J Veugelers 15,✉
PMCID: PMC6974047  PMID: 21214049

Abstract

Background

In order to better target prevention initiatives for the obesity epidemic in Canada, policy-makers, in addition to information about risk factors, require an understanding of the preventive potential which is best provided by the risk factor’s population attributable risk fraction (PARF).

Objective

To estimate the PARF for childhood overweight risk factors as identified by a population-based study of elementary schoolchildren in Nova Scotia.

Methods

Population-based survey data of Grade 5 students who participated in the 2003 Children’s Lifestyle and School Performance Study in Nova Scotia, Canada, were linked to a provincial perinatal registry. PARFs were calculated from a parsimonious multilevel logistic regression model.

Results

Physical activity, sedentary activity, maternal smoking during pregnancy, and maternal pre-pregnancy weight were considered potentially preventable. Sedentary activity (as estimated from time spent viewing TV, computers and video games or “screen time”) and maternal pre-pregnancy weight appeared to offer the greatest potential for prevention. In total, approximately 40% of overweight in childhood could potentially be prevented.

Conclusion

Excess screen time and maternal pre-pregnancy weight offer the greatest potential for prevention of childhood overweight at 11 years of age.

Key words: Obesity, child, prevention, population attributable risk, public health, physical activity, nutrition

Footnotes

Funding: The study was funded by an operating grant of the Canadian Population Health Initiative (Primary Investigator: Paul Veugelers) and through a Canada Research Chair in Population Health and an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Scholarship awarded to Dr. Paul Veugelers.

Conflict of Interest: None to declare.

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