What role does the family play so that young teenagers live healthy lives?

Children under the age of 10 years who regularly eat with the family, live in an orderly home where they feel comfortable, have a 50 percent reduced risk for overweight and obesity. This is an important finding of the IDEFICS study which studied schoolchildren and kindergarten children from 2008 to 2012 in Wilhelmshaven and Delmenhorst.   

But what happens when these children are young teenagers, a phase during which the influence of the family becomes less and more and more factors from outside come into play? Basing on children who already took part in the IDEFICS study, the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS is now investigating families with children aged up to 15 years in the I.Family study. In addition to the boys and girls from the IDEFICS study, their parents and siblings are also encouraged to participate in the study. It is expected that a total of 16,000 children from 8 European countries will take part in the study.  

At the moment the I.Family study team is contacting the families by letter, requesting them to take part in the study. The cities of Delmenhorst and Wilhelmshaven support the study which is funded by the European Union.

The study starts in Delmenhorst and Wilhelmshaven in April 2013. To this end, the study leader from the University of Bremen and from BIPS will present the aims of the I.Family study to city representatives on Wednesday, April 3 (Delmenhorst) and Thursday, April 4 (Wilhelmshaven).

Further information: www.ifamilystudy.eu