Study: obese women having more children

FARGO, N.D., Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Researchers in North Dakota say the number of overweight women having children could be contributing to U.S. obesity rates.

Sociologist Lee Ellis of Minot State University, whose study is summarized in the latest issue the Journal of Biosocial Science, analyzed data from a large sample of two generations of U.S. and Canadian college students and their mothers.

Ellis found obese and overweight women tended to have more children than women who were not overweight.

The mothers, most of whom were born during the 1940s and 1950s, reported their height and weight on the surveys.