Résultats d'une étude britannique incluant 13.113 enfants de 3 ans :

23 % d'entre eux étaient en surpoids.

Toute reprise d'un emploi par la mère juste après la naissance avait augmenté la probabilité de surpoids infantile précoce, proportionnellement au nombre d'heures de travail qu’elles accomplissaient.

Cet effet n'était significatif que dans les foyers ayant un revenu annuel = /> 57.750 €.

Le travail de la mère semble donc diminuer l'accès des enfants à des nourritures saines et à une activité physique.

Maternal employment and early childhood overweight: findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

S S Hawkins1, T J Cole1 and C Law1 The Millennium Cohort Study Child Health Group1

1Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, UCL Institute of Child Health, London, UK

Correspondence: SS Hawkins, Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, UCL Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK. E-mail: s.hawkins@ich.ucl.ac.uk

1Other members of the Millennium Cohort Study Child Health Group who contributed to this work: Professor Carol Dezateux (Professor), Professor Catherine Peckham (Professor), Dr Helen Bedford (Senior Lecturer), Dr Jugnoo Rahi (Clinical Senior Lecturer), Dr Lucy J Griffiths (Senior Research Fellow), Phillippa Cumberland (Senior Research Fellow), Anna Pearce (Research Fellow), Suzanne Bartington (PhD student), all at the Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, UCL Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London, WC1N 1EH, UK.

Received 23 January 2007; Revised 22 May 2007; Accepted 18 June 2007; Published online 17 July 2007.

Background: In most developed countries, maternal employment has increased rapidly. Changing patterns of family life have been suggested to be contributing to the rising prevalence of childhood obesity.
Objectives: Our primary objective was to examine the relationship between maternal and partner employment and overweight in children aged 3 years. Our secondary objective was to investigate factors related to early childhood overweight only among mothers in employment.
Design: Cohort study.
Subjects: A total of 13 113 singleton children aged 3 years in the Millennium Cohort Study, born between 2000 and 2002 in the United Kingdom, who had complete height/weight data and parental employment histories.
Measurements: Parents were interviewed when the child was aged 9 months and 3 years, and the child's height and weight were measured at 3 years. Overweight (including obesity) was defined by the International Obesity Task Force cut-offs.
Results: A total of 23% (3085) of children were overweight at 3 years. Any maternal employment after the child's birth was associated with early childhood overweight (odds ratio (OR) [95% confidence interval (CI)]; 1.14 [1.00, 1.29]), after adjustment for potential confounding and mediating factors. Children were more likely to be overweight for every 10 h a mother worked per week (OR [95% CI]; 1.10 [1.04, 1.17]), after adjustment. An interaction with household income revealed that this relationship was only significant for children from households with an annual income of £33 000 ($57 750) or higher. There was no evidence for an association between early childhood overweight and whether or for how many hours the partner worked, or with mothers' or partners' duration of employment. These relationships were also evident among mothers in employment. Independent risk factors for early childhood overweight were consistent with the published literature.
Conclusions: Long hours of maternal employment, rather than lack of money may impede young children's access to healthy foods and physical activity. Policies supporting work–life balance may help parents reduce potential barriers.
Keywords: preschool children, employment, mothers, fathers