Reversing the impact of the pandemic on childhood obesity
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and communities had to take rapid and decisive action to protect their citizens against this novel virus. While it was yet unclear how dangerous the COVID-19 infection may be to children, their teachers, and their families, governments quickly shut down schools and activities to slow the spread among the population at large. Before the pandemic, childhood obesity was already a crisis with a prevalence of 19 percent among 2- to 19-year-old children . But in the two short years since the massive shutdowns of schools and activities were instituted, the obesity rate among youth between 2 and 19 years of age took another leap to a current prevalence of 22 percent . The monthly rate of increasing body mass index (BMI) nearly doubled during the pandemic . The same factors that contributed to obesity before the pandemic, such as decreased physical activity, consumption of unhealthy food, and excessive screen time, all wor...