Maternal Intimate Partner Violence Linked to Childhood Obesity

Preschool-aged children of mothers who have been chronically abused by their partners have an increased risk of developing obesity, according to a cohort trial from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (FFCWS).

In fact, 16.5% of the children with mothers reporting any form of intimate partner violence (IPV) were obese at the age of 5 years — and those with mothers reporting chronic IPV were 80% more likely to be obese than those with no maternal IPV, report the study authors.

"To our knowledge, no study has explored [this] impact," write lead study author Renée Boynton-Jarrett, MD, ScD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts, and colleagues.

On the basis of these findings, "medical and public health practitioners must consider the impact of family violence on obesity risk when designing and implementing primary obesity prevention interventions," they add.

"Routine screening is also important," Dr. Boynton-Jarrett told Medscape Psychiatry. "Screening and intervening early might not only lead to a reduction in the violence within the family, but we may also be improving a range of child health outcomes."

The study is published in the June issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

3 Million to 10 Million Children Witness IPV

"Obese youth are more likely to become obese adults and disproportionately experience cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidities, reproductive dysfunction, and emotional sequelae," the investigators write.

They add that 3 million to 10 million children between the ages of 3 and 17 years witness IPV annually, "with a disproportionate number aged 5 years and younger."

"Both exposure to [IPV] and childhood obesity are major public health problems," said Dr. Boynton-Jarrett. "We have learned over time that early childhood adversities have long-lasting consequences for both the health of the child and their health trajectory as they enter adulthood, including chronic illness risk."

Although past studies have linked obesity with patterns of family dysfunction, "there has been a paucity of research to date that has explored the impact of family violence on obesity risk in early life."

For this study, the investigators examined data from the FFCWS on 1595 children (51.2% male) from 20 large cities in the United States, born between 1998 and 2000, and their parents.

Mothers were interviewed in the hospital shortly after giving birth and by telephone at 12, 36, and 60 months after giving birth about restrictive, sexual, and physical abuse they may have received from an intimate partner. Chronic IPV was defined as "any maternal IPV exposure during both pregnancy or infancy (0-12 months) and early childhood (36-60 months)."