Association between maternal feeling about pregnancy and child's lifestyle.

The number of children with undesirable lifestyles has recently increased. We tested the hypothesis that maternal feelings about pregnancy might be associated with their attitude towards promoting healthy lifestyles in their children. We used a city database collected from guardians of 204 randomly selected children aged 1 to 3 years in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima. Maternal feeling about pregnancy was measured using a 10-point scale, and a child lifestyle score was calculated as the sum of desirable lifestyle habits (sleeping, eating, watching TV/videos, and tooth brushing). Associations between maternal feeling and her child's lifestyles were examined with multiple logistic regression analysis. For all lifestyle items, proportion of children with undesirable lifestyle habits was higher in the "unhappy group" (those who scored 1 to 9) than in the "happy group" (those who scored 10). In particular, a child's short sleeping hours (odds ratio [OR]=3.01) and lifestyle score of less than 3 ([OR] =3.60) were significantly associated with unhappy feelings. This was apparent among mothers aged 29 (median age) or younger. Our results indicate an association between a mother's unhappy feelings about pregnancy and her child's undesirable lifestyle, especially among relatively younger mothers. These findings provide public health implications important for early familial intervention to improve children's lifestyles.