Table 2.
Characteristics of children and their parents across parental feeding practices based on pooled baseline data during 2015 to 2017 from the Childhood Obesity Study in China Mega-Cities (n = 2139).
| Characteristics | Concern a | Pressure to Eat a | Control a | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tertile 1 | Tertile 2 | Tertile 3 | Tertile 1 | Tertile 2 | Tertile 3 | Tertile 1 | Tertile 2 | Tertile 3 | |
| Age (years) | 11.30 ± 2.21 | 10.77 ± 2.16 | 10.83 ± 2.22 | 10.95 ± 2.23 | 10.92 ± 2.20 | 11.04 ± 2.19 | 10.90 ± 2.16 | 10.86 ± 2.24 | 11.14 ± 2.21 |
| School type (%) | |||||||||
| Primary | 46.09 | 57.91 | 58.28 | 53.68 | 56.20 | 52.38 | 55.90 | 57.36 | 49.00 |
| Secondary | 53.91 | 42.09 | 41.72 *** | 46.32 | 43.80 | 47.62 | 44.10 | 42.64 | 51.00 ** |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 18.30 ± 3.23 | 18.55 ± 3.57 | 19.18 ± 3.91 *** | 19.08 ± 3.61 | 18.63 ± 3.64 | 18.32 ± 3.50 | 18.52 ± 3.33 | 18.58 ± 3.72 | 18.93 ± 3.72 ** |
| WHtR | 0.42 ± 0.05 | 0.43 ± 0.05 | 0.44 ± 0.06 *** | 0.44 ± 0.06 | 0.43 ± 0.05 | 0.43 ± 0.05 | 0.43 ± 0.05 | 0.43 ± 0.06 | 0.43 ± 0.06 *** |
| Central obesity (%) b | 12.71 | 18.74 | 23.47 *** | 20.09 | 17.15 | 17.67 | 16.54 | 18.10 | 20.28 |
| General obesity (%) c | 21.88 | 29.17 | 36.63 *** | 34.67 | 27.47 | 25.50 *** | 27.38 | 30.71 | 29.57 |
| Maternal BMI (kg/m2) | 22.00 ± 3.38 | 22.13 ± 3.39 | 22.11 ± 3.67 | 22.15 ± 3.85 | 22.08 ± 3.09 | 22.02 ± 3.48 *** | 22.16 ± 4.19 | 21.89 ± 2.83 | 22.20 ± 3.29 *** |
| Paternal BMI (kg/m2) | 23.79 ± 2.76 | 24.10 ± 2.91 | 24.05 ± 2.80 | 24.00 ± 2.78 | 24.05 ± 2.91 | 23.87 ± 2.78 | 23.95 ± 2.85 | 24.10 ± 2.87 | 23.87 ± 2.75 |
| Maternal education (%) | |||||||||
| Middle school or lower | 25.94 | 20.34 | 15.35 | 20.06 | 21.02 | 20.47 | 17.83 | 17.67 | 26.14 |
| High or vocational school | 30.03 | 27.80 | 26.05 | 27.80 | 27.51 | 28.53 | 27.60 | 28.84 | 27.40 |
| College or above | 44.03 | 51.86 | 58.60 *** | 52.13 | 51.47 | 51.01 | 54.57 | 53.49 | 46.46 *** |
| Paternal education (%) | |||||||||
| Middle school or lower | 20.97 | 14.20 | 12.23 | 16.30 | 14.88 | 16.19 | 14.22 | 14.98 | 18.23 |
| High or vocational school | 29.73 | 30.44 | 25.08 | 25.71 | 30.39 | 29.09 | 24.88 | 28.86 | 31.54 |
| College or above | 49.30 | 55.36 | 62.69 *** | 57.99 | 54.73 | 54.72 | 60.90 | 56.16 | 50.24 ** |
BMI: Body mass index, WHtR: Waist to height ratio. Data were mean ± SD unless otherwise indicated. a: The test of characteristics across tertiles for specific parental feeding practices were based on Chi-square test for categorical variables and ANOVA for continuous variables; b: Central obesity was defined as having a WHtR ≥ 0.48; c: General obesity was defined using sex-age-specific BMI cutoff points according to the Chinese National Standard, “WS/T 586-2018 Screening for overweight and obesity among school-aged children and adolescents”. In this study, general obesity included overweight and obesity. **: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001.