Children of obese parents ‘six times more likely also to be obese in middle age’

When both parents were obese in middle age, their children had six times higher odds of living with obesity themselves in middle age, than adults with both parents in the normal weight range. Picture: World Obesity Federation

People are six times more likely to be obese in middle age if both their parents were obese at that age, a new study suggests.

Having one parent living with obesity triples the odds, according to the research to be presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Venice, Italy.