Chaotic households 'can make moms obese'

Chaotic households can make mothers obese, for a study has found that day-to-day pressures like putting food on the table and managing kids contribute to stress which may raise a woman's chances of gaining weight.

Researchers in the US have based their findings on an analysis of data from a well-being survey of children born in 20 American cities between 1998 and 2000. It focussed on 1,449 mothers whose weight and height were included.

They rated household instability by taking into account parental stress, financial instability and ability to keep food on the table. The average age of the mothers was 28, and 40 percent of children did not have a father in the house.

The study found 41 per cent of mothers were obese -- 38 percent in low-instability households were overweight while nearly 48 percent in high-instability households were obese.

"Although mothers' weight increases along with household instability, their young children's weight doesn't," study's lead author Earle Chambers was quoted by the 'Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved' as saying.

However, Chambers, a Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, said that access to healthy places to eat as well as exercise space can well make a difference.

The results did not surprise Adam Drewnowski, Director of the University of Washington in Seattle.

"There will be wide variability by area, but based on our analyses of data from California and from New York, every additional 10 percent in poverty rates translates into another 6 percent rise in obesity rates," he said.