Parents' looks can affect health

Having an overweight father increases a child's health risk

Having a short mother and an overweight father means you are more likely to have health problems as an adult, researchers suggest.

They say the parental combination can result in an underweight baby, who then grows into an overweight adult.

This increases their risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Seven thousand people born in March 1958 were studied - and again aged 7, 11, 16, 23 and 33.

The causes of high risk in this generation born in 1958 seems to reside in utero and even earlier, in the mother's lifetime Professor Chris Power, Institute for Child Health

The results, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found that 284 men and 338 women could be classed as being at high risk of developing chronic disease.

At the age of seven, the men in this group had been 1cm lower, and women 2cm lower than their lower risk peers.

By the time they were 33 they were an average of 3 cm shorter.

For every additional 1cm in their mother's height, the child's chances of being in the high risk group fell by 5%.

'Adverse conditions'

This group also started to gain excess weight after the age of seven, and then continued to gain more weight, more quickly, than their peers.

This interesting study reinforces the need for men and women to maintain a healthy weight throughout their life Professor Lucilla Poston, British Heart Foundation

They were also likely to come from working class families, and to have had mothers who smoked during pregnancy.

Having an overweight father also increased a child's risk of having health problems as an adult.

The researchers from the Institute of Child Health found that for every one unit increase in the father's body mass index, - calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by the square of height in metres - increased the chances of a child being in the "high risk" group by around 7%.

The researchers, led by Professor Chris Power, wrote: "The causes of high risk in this generation born in 1958 seems to reside in utero and even earlier, in the mother's lifetime, with adverse conditions having a detrimental effect and favourable conditions protecting against high risk."

Professor Lucilla Poston, of the British Heart Foundation, said: ""It has been known for some time now that babies of small birth weight are more likely to develop coronary heart disease. Obesity is also strongly linked to heart disease.

This interesting study reinforces the need for men and women to maintain a healthy weight throughout their life by cutting saturated fat from their diet, taking regular exercise and eating plenty of fruit and vegetables - and to stop smoking."