Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Nov;29(11):1907-1915.
doi: 10.1002/oby.23276. Epub 2021 Sep 28.

Unfavorable progression of obesity in children and adolescents due to COVID-19 pandemic: A school-based survey in China

Jia Hu  1 , Jieyu Liu  2   3 , Jiaxiang Wang  2   4 , Mingzhu Shen  5 , Wenxin Ge  2 , Hui Shen  1 , Tian Zhang  2 , Haibing Yang  1 , Jieyun Yin  2
Affiliations

Unfavorable progression of obesity in children and adolescents due to COVID-19 pandemic: A school-based survey in China

Jia Hu et al. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2021 Nov.

Abstract

Objective: The Chinese government decisively imposed nationwide confinement in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the progression of obesity in children and adolescents in Changshu, China.

Methods: Based on the Health Promotion Program for Children and Adolescents (HPPCA), which is a prospective cross-sectional and school-based study, BMI assessed in seven consecutive years (2014 to 2020) among children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years in Changshu city was extracted. The standardized BMI z scores (zBMI) and prevalence of obesity between 2020 (after COVID-19 home confinement) and the previous 6 years were compared among age-specific subgroups and between sexes.

Results: The mean number of participants per year was 29,648. The overall mean zBMI drastically increased from 0.29 in 2019 to 0.45 in 2020, resulting in a rise of 0.16 (95% CI: 0.14-0.18); the prevalence of obesity substantially elevated to 12.77% in 2020 (versus 10.38% in 2017), with an acceleration of 2.39% (95% CI: 1.88%-2.90%). Of note, these increases were more likely to be observed in boys and those 6 to 11 years old.

Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic seemed to exacerbate the obesity epidemic among pediatric populations in Changshu, China.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Mean BMI z scores by gender for children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years during the 7 years of screenings
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Prevalence of obesity by gender for children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years during the 7 years of screenings
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
BMI z score changes from prepandemic period to 2020 between subgroups
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Difference of obesity prevalence from prepandemic period to 2020 between subgroups
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. NCD Risk Factor Collaboration . Worldwide trends in body‐mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from 1975 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 2416 population‐based measurement studies in 128·9 million children, adolescents, and adults. Lancet. 2017;390(10113):2627‐2642. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Weihrauch‐Blüher S, Schwarz P, Klusmann J. Childhood obesity: increased risk for cardiometabolic disease and cancer in adulthood. Metabolism. 2019;92:147‐152. - PubMed
    1. Bjerregaard L, Jensen B, Ängquist L, Osler M, Sørensen T, Baker J. Change in overweight from childhood to early adulthood and risk of type 2 diabetes. N Engl J Med. 2018;378(14):1302‐1312. - PubMed
    1. Sultana S, Rahman M, Sigel B, Hashizume M. Associations of lifestyle risk factors with overweight or obesity among adolescents: a multicountry analysis. Am J Clin Nutr. 2021;113(3):742‐750. - PubMed
    1. von Hippel PT, Workman J. From kindergarten through second grade, U.S. children's obesity prevalence grows only during summer vacations. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2016;24(11):2296‐2300. - PubMed

Publication types