Obesity in children is a major public health concern.
This study examined the value of using parent-child dyads' adiposity status for predicting the individual's later eligibility for bariatric surgery (EBS).
The cohort consisted of 2647 individuals from the longitudinal Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. Baseline information included own and parental body mass index (BMI) in 1980 (children aged 3-18 years), whereas adult follow-up assessment examined EBS 21-31 years later.
EBS in adulthood was defined as: 1) BMI greater than 40 kg/m(2) or 2) BMI greater than 35 kg/m(2) with at least one of the following metabolic complications: type 2 diabetes, hypertension, or dyslipidemia.
Addition of parents' BMI improved the prediction of adulthood EBS compared to the model including child's BMI, age, and sex (area under the curve values [95% confidence interval] (0.80 [0.74-0.85] vs 0.74 [0.68-0.81], P = .003). Obese children with an obese parent had a 21.2% chance of being EBS in adulthood. Compared to nonobese families, the risk ratio for EBS was 14.2 (95% confidence interval 8.0-25.2, P