Childhood obesity figures were bad, to begin with, but got even worse during the pandemic.
The Research
Woolford (2021) published data in August 2021 for youth ages 5-17 related to their gains in body mass index (BMI). BMI is a useful tool to gauge general health risks as measured by a ratio of height and weight.
The Results
Overall data indicate that BMI increased for all age groups during the pandemic. Researchers separated the children into these groups: 5-11, 12-16, and 17-18 years old. Each group increased weight by 2.30 kg, 2.31, and 1.03kg, respectively.
Simply put, the younger kids gained about 5 pounds during the pandemic, and the older kids about 2 pounds.
From the article (with my notes):
Interpretations
We all experienced significant environmental changes related to physical activity pattern disruption. The pandemic engineered out natural occurrences of physical activity like going to school, sports programs, and all those related active transitions (e.g., walking down the hallway).
Our world seems to have “opened back up”, but we still are faced with how will another year of pseudo-pandemic changes affect our children’s waistlines.
Reference
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