Crowd-sourced study: 'kids with involved parents become slimmer adults'

One of the first studies to use crowd-sourced information to uncover potential predictors of obesity has suggested that children whose parents are very involved in their young lives are more likely to be slim in adulthood. Results of the study, conducted by researchers at Cornell University in New York, are published in the journal PLOS ONE.

The researchers say they used crowdsourcing in order to determine whether the method could produce well-documented predictors in obesity research and whether new avenues for research could be discovered.

Accordingly, the team recruited 532 adult study participants from relevant areas of reddit.com, a website where users generate content, and asked them: "Which childhood experiences and behaviors might predict slimness or obesity in adulthood?"

The participants suggested what they believed to be the best predictor for adult weight and submitted this predictor in the form of a question. In total, 56 unique questions were submitted. Some of these were:

• When you were a child, did someone consistently pack a lunch for you to take to school?


• When you were a child, were your parents obese?


• When you were a child, how much sleep did you get on an average school weekday?


• When you were a child, were you bullied?

In addition to supplying weight, height and age, the participants answered questions from others about their own childhood behaviors.

Crowdsourcing 'provides new avenues of study'

The researchers note that data from 2010 showed the rate of obesity in the US to be 16.9% among children and adolescents, and 35.7% among adults.