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Study: Childhood Obesity in U.S. Accelerated During Pandemic

posted by janrinok on Friday September 17 2021, @11:14PM   
from the side-effect-of-covid dept.

upstart writes:

Study: Childhood obesity in U.S. accelerated during pandemic:

A new study ties the COVID-19 pandemic to an "alarming" increase in obesity in U.S. children and teenagers.

Childhood obesity has been increasing for decades, but the new work suggests an acceleration last year — especially in those who already were obese when the pandemic started.

The results signal a "profound increase in weight gain for kids" and are "substantial and alarming," said one of the study's authors, Dr. Alyson Goodman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It's also a sign of a vicious cycle. The pandemic appears to be worsening the nation's longstanding obesity epidemic, and obesity can put people at risk for more severe illness after coronavirus infection.

The CDC on Thursday released the study, which is the largest yet to look at obesity trends during the pandemic.

It found:

• An estimated 22% of children and teens were obese last August, up from 19% a year earlier.
• Before the pandemic, children who were a healthy weight were gaining an average of 3.4 pounds a year. That rose to 5.4 pounds during the pandemic.
• For kids who were moderately obese, expected weight gain rose from 6.5 pounds a year before the pandemic to 12 pounds after the pandemic began.
• For severely obese kids, expected annual weight gain went from 8.8 pounds to 14.6 pounds.

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Original Submission

• Re:Don't know exactly what to put here! (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @05:23PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @05:23PM (#1179231)

  take away the Playstation etc, and make them go outside.

  wait, what? so that the pedos can get them or the Q-anons can drink their blood? At least now we have vigilance to prevent this type of crap

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/maryland-couple-want-free-range-kids-but-not-all-do/2015/01/14/d406c0be-9c0f-11e4-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html [washingtonpost.com]

  It was a one-mile walk home from a Silver Spring park on Georgia Avenue on a Saturday afternoon. But what the parents saw as a moment of independence for their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, they say authorities viewed much differently.

  When I was 6, I walked to school a mile away, alone, but this was long ago in a communist country. We don't do these stupid things in the civilized America anymore. When I was 15, I was asked by a concerned mother whether I would walk their child to the corner to wait for a bus, because you know, it's difficult for a 12 year old to walk 100m without getting kidnapped or run over by a car. Today, only allow kids to play outside when under the eye of a parent, preferably multiple just to be certain that one is not a pedo or worse.

  The playstation is the only safe option. Really. The obesity is just the price the kids have to pay for the safety (for the bypass OP at 40, if they even qualify)

  Parent