Pandemic causes childhood obesity to worsen
District of Columbia | September 22, 2021
The more sedentary lifestyles children experienced during the pandemic have resulted in substantial weight gain. A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined the weight of over 432,000 persons age 2-19 from March 2020 to November 2020. It found that the rate of increase of body mass index among that cohort nearly doubled, from 0.052 to 0.100. During the pandemic, many schools reverted to online learning partially or in full. Experts warned that without recess and other school-related physical activity, children would gain more weight, exacerbating the already serious public health problem of childhood obesity…. (Excerpts from the Washington Examiner)