Influential Factors on the Prevalence of Childhood Obesity and Overweight in Jiroft, Kerman Province, Iran
-
Mojtaba Norouzi
,
Naser Nasiri
,
Sasan Amiri
,
Habibeh Nasab
,
Nahid Bagheri
,
Mostafa Eghbalian
,
Parvaneh Nazari
,
Reza Faryabi
Abstract
Background: We aimed to investigate the factors that influence the prevalence of obesity and overweight in children in Jiroft, Kerman Province, Iran using tree regression analysis.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2024. Children aged 2-6 years were selected from the kindergartens of Jiroft City by a stratified random sampling method. Parents' demographic information, the mother's health information during pregnancy, nutrition, and the child's lifestyle were obtained through a questionnaire. Children's BMI Z-score was measured. A decision tree model was built using the "rpart" package in R software (version 4.5.1).
Results: Out of 1032 children aged 2-6 years, 51.0% (n=522) were girls. The factors affecting the BMI of children include having a father weighing more than 89 kg, a high-income family, and a birth weight of less than 3.1 kg. According to the regression model, mother's job (P-value=0.045), father's weight (P-value=0.002), and birth weight (P-value=0.013) were positively associated with higher child's BMI status. In contrast, daily vegetable intake (P-value=0.044) was negatively associated with current BMI.
Conclusion: Fathers' weight, family income, and vegetable intake are key factors influencing early childhood BMI in Jiroft. Targeted interventions should prioritize engaging fathers in weight management programs before and during their child’s formative years. Obesity prevention efforts must also address lifestyle behaviors in affluent households through tailored nutritional counseling. Regular vegetable intake appears to have a protective effect, contributing to lower BMI in children.
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26. Gomes AI, Pereira AI, Roberto MS, et al (2021). Changing parental feeding practices through web-based interventions: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One, 16(4):e0250231.
27. Zhuang CC, Jones-Smith JC, Andrea SB, et al (2023). Maternal precarious employment and child overweight/obesity in the United States. Prev Med, 169:107471.
28. Paramasivam K, Manjunathappa TH, SampathKumar B,et al (2025). Employability of Mothers and its Impact on Body Mass Index and Dental Caries of their Preschool Children: A Cross-sectional Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent, 18(1):91-9.
29. Hsu P-C, Hwang F-M, Chien M-I, et al (2022). The impact of maternal influences on childhood obesity. Sci Rep,12(1):6258.
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31. Baran J, Weres A, Czenczek-Lewandowska E, et al (2019). Relationship between children’s birth weight and birth length and a risk of overweight and obesity in 4–15-year-old children. Medicina, 55(8):487.
32. Lin Y, Rankin R, McDonald S, et al (2025). Children's birth weight and the risk of general obesity and central obesity in primary school children: a 4-year longitudinal study. Front Public Health,13:1469226.
33. Putri RR, Danielsson P, Marcus C, et al (2024). Height and growth velocity in children and adolescents undergoing obesity treatment: a prospective cohort study. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 109(1):e314-e20.
34. Andriani H (2021). Birth weight and childhood obesity: effect modification by residence and household wealth. Emerg Themes Epidemiol, 18(1):6.
35. Kuciene R, Dulskiene V (2022). Associations of maternal gestational hypertension with high blood pressure and overweight/obesity in their adolescent offspring: a retrospective cohort study. Sci Rep, 12(1):3800.
36. Yan S, Lyu J, Liu Z, et al (2022). Association of gestational hypertension and preeclampsia with offspring adiposity: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Endocrinol,13:906781.
37. Chen Y, Wang Y, Li Y, et al (2023). Association of the Severity of Hypertensive Disorders in Pregnancy with Birthweight, Childhood Obesity, and Blood Pressure at Age 7. Nutrients,15(14):3104.
38. Mustafa AEM, Assery AAA, Asiri FMA, et al (2021). Childhood obesity and its relation with dietary habits among children in Aseer region, Southern Saudi Arabia. J Family Med Prim Care 10(10):3760-4.
39. Liberali R, Kupek E, Assis MAAd (2020). Dietary patterns and childhood obesity risk: a systematic review. Child Obes,16(2):70-85.
40. Tambalis KD, Panagiotakos DB, Sidossis LS (2024). Increased fruit consumption was favorably associated with dietary habits, obesity, sedentary time, and physical fitness among Greek children and adolescents. J Public Health Emerg, 2(3):8.
41. Breiman L (2017). Classification and regression trees. Chapman and Hall/CRC.
42. Nielsen LA, Nielsen TRH, Holm J-C (2015). The impact of familial predisposition to obesity and cardiovascular disease on childhood obesity. Obes Facts, 8(5):319-28.
2. Ek A, Brissman M, Nordin K, et al (2023). A long-term follow-up of treatment for young children with obesity: a randomized controlled trial. Int J Obes (Lond), 47(11):1152-60.
3. Sanjari M, Amirkhosravi L, Hosseini SE, et al (2023). Underweight, overweight, obesity and associated factors among elementary school children: A cross-sectional study in Kerman province, Iran. Obes Med, 38:100477.
4. Khateri S, Moradi Y, Khazaei Z, et al (2019). Prevalence of obesity and overweight in Iranian children aged less than 5 years: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Korean J Pediatr, 62(6):206-212.
5. Lister NB, Baur LA, Felix JF, et al (2023). Child and adolescent obesity. Nat Rev Dis Primers, 9(1):24.
6. Danquah FI, Ansu-Mensah M, Bawontuo V, et al (2020). Risk factors and morbidities associated with childhood obesity in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic scoping review. BMC Nutr, 6:37.
7. Taghizadeh S, Khodayari-Zarnaq R, Farhangi MA (2021). Childhood obesity prevention policies in Iran: a policy analysis of agenda-setting using Kingdon’s multiple streams. BMC Pediatr, 21(1):250.
8. Hersch DE, Uy MJA, Ngaw SM, et al (2021). Primary care providers’ perspectives on initiating childhood obesity conversations: a qualitative study. Fam Pract, 38(4):460-7.
9. González-Álvarez MA, Lázaro-Alquézar A, Simón-Fernández MB (2020). Global trends in child obesity: are figures converging? Int J Environ Res Public Health, 17(24):9252.
10. Frithioff-Bøjsøe C, Lund MAV, Lausten-Thomsen U, et al (2022). Early detection of childhood overweight and related complications in a Danish population-based cohort aged 2–8 years. Obes Res Clin Pract,16(3):228-34.
11. Alanazi SH, Abdollahian M, Tafakori L, et al (2024). Predicting age at onset of childhood obesity using regression, Random Forest, Decision Tree, and K-Nearest Neighbour—A case study in Saudi Arabia. PloS one,19(9):e0308408.
12. Crouch E, Abshire DA, Wirth MD, et al (2023). Rural-Urban Differences in Overweight and Obesity, Physical Activity, and Food Security Among Children and Adolescents. Prev Chronic Dis, 20:E92.
13. Akbari H, Mohammadi M (2022). The prevalence of obesity in Iranian children: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Pediatr Rev,10(2):93-102.
14. Doustmohammadian A, Abdollahi M, Bondarianzadeh D, et al (2012). Parental determinants of overweight and obesity in Iranian adolescents: a national study. Iran J Pediatr, 22(1):35-42.
15. Lee JS, Jin MH, Lee HJ (2022). Global relationship between parent and child obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Clin Exp Pediatr,65(1):35-46.
16. Salari-Moghaddam A, Hajihashemi P, Basirat R, et al (2019). Household socioeconomic status in relation to childhood general and central obesity in Farrokhshahr, Iran. ARYA Atheroscler, 15(5):211-7.
17. Zhang Y, Mei H, Xu K, et al (2021). Association and potential mediators between socioeconomic status and childhood overweight/obesity. Prev Med,146:106451.
18. Nouri M, Shateri Z, Faghih S (2023). The relationship between intake of fruits, vegetables and dairy products with overweight and obesity in a large sample in Iran: Findings of STEPS 2016. Front Nutr, 9:1082976.
19. Bahreynian M, Paknahad Z, Maracy MR (2013). Major dietary patterns and their associations with overweight and obesity among Iranian children. Int J Prev Med, 4(4):448-58.
20. Bahrampour A, Baneshi MR, Karamoozian A, Seyedghasemi NS, Etminan A, Eghbalian M (2024). Long-Term Survival of Patient with End-Stage Renal Disease Using Bayesian Mixture Cure Rate Frailty Models. Iran J Public Health, 53(9):2113-20.
21. Eghbalian M, Akbari H, Norozi M, et al (2025). Correlation between Obesity and Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Diseases in Military Personnel. Iran J Public Health, 54(1):205-213.
22. Silvey S, Liu J (2024). Sample Size Requirements for Popular Classification Algorithms in Tabular Clinical Data: Empirical Study. J Med Internet Res, 26:e60231.
23. Fan H, Zhang X (20222). Influence of parental weight change on the incidence of overweight and obesity in offspring. BMC Pediatr, 22(1):330.
24. Mei H, Guo S, Lu H, et al (2018). Impact of parental weight status on children’s body mass index in early life: evidence from a Chinese cohort. BMJ Open, 8(6):e018755.
25. Kininmonth AR, Herle M, Tommerup K, et al (2023). Parental feeding practices as a response to child appetitive traits in toddlerhood and early childhood: a discordant twin analysis of the Gemini cohort. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act, 20(1):39.
26. Gomes AI, Pereira AI, Roberto MS, et al (2021). Changing parental feeding practices through web-based interventions: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One, 16(4):e0250231.
27. Zhuang CC, Jones-Smith JC, Andrea SB, et al (2023). Maternal precarious employment and child overweight/obesity in the United States. Prev Med, 169:107471.
28. Paramasivam K, Manjunathappa TH, SampathKumar B,et al (2025). Employability of Mothers and its Impact on Body Mass Index and Dental Caries of their Preschool Children: A Cross-sectional Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent, 18(1):91-9.
29. Hsu P-C, Hwang F-M, Chien M-I, et al (2022). The impact of maternal influences on childhood obesity. Sci Rep,12(1):6258.
30. Martin MA (2021). What is the causal effect of income gains on youth obesity? Leveraging the economic boom created by the Marcellus Shale development. Soc Sci Med, 272:113732.
31. Baran J, Weres A, Czenczek-Lewandowska E, et al (2019). Relationship between children’s birth weight and birth length and a risk of overweight and obesity in 4–15-year-old children. Medicina, 55(8):487.
32. Lin Y, Rankin R, McDonald S, et al (2025). Children's birth weight and the risk of general obesity and central obesity in primary school children: a 4-year longitudinal study. Front Public Health,13:1469226.
33. Putri RR, Danielsson P, Marcus C, et al (2024). Height and growth velocity in children and adolescents undergoing obesity treatment: a prospective cohort study. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 109(1):e314-e20.
34. Andriani H (2021). Birth weight and childhood obesity: effect modification by residence and household wealth. Emerg Themes Epidemiol, 18(1):6.
35. Kuciene R, Dulskiene V (2022). Associations of maternal gestational hypertension with high blood pressure and overweight/obesity in their adolescent offspring: a retrospective cohort study. Sci Rep, 12(1):3800.
36. Yan S, Lyu J, Liu Z, et al (2022). Association of gestational hypertension and preeclampsia with offspring adiposity: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Endocrinol,13:906781.
37. Chen Y, Wang Y, Li Y, et al (2023). Association of the Severity of Hypertensive Disorders in Pregnancy with Birthweight, Childhood Obesity, and Blood Pressure at Age 7. Nutrients,15(14):3104.
38. Mustafa AEM, Assery AAA, Asiri FMA, et al (2021). Childhood obesity and its relation with dietary habits among children in Aseer region, Southern Saudi Arabia. J Family Med Prim Care 10(10):3760-4.
39. Liberali R, Kupek E, Assis MAAd (2020). Dietary patterns and childhood obesity risk: a systematic review. Child Obes,16(2):70-85.
40. Tambalis KD, Panagiotakos DB, Sidossis LS (2024). Increased fruit consumption was favorably associated with dietary habits, obesity, sedentary time, and physical fitness among Greek children and adolescents. J Public Health Emerg, 2(3):8.
41. Breiman L (2017). Classification and regression trees. Chapman and Hall/CRC.
42. Nielsen LA, Nielsen TRH, Holm J-C (2015). The impact of familial predisposition to obesity and cardiovascular disease on childhood obesity. Obes Facts, 8(5):319-28.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 55 No 1 (2026) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v55i1.20982 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Children Obesity Overweight Iran | ||
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How to Cite
1.
Norouzi M, Nasiri N, Amiri S, Nasab H, Bagheri N, Eghbalian M, Nazari P, Faryabi R. Influential Factors on the Prevalence of Childhood Obesity and Overweight in Jiroft, Kerman Province, Iran. Iran J Public Health. 2026;55(1):162-172.
