Three in 5 kids gained 10% weight in pandemic: Survey

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 13

Three in five children gained an additional 10 per cent weight during the period of the pandemic, with hospitals receiving a rising number of cases involving kids with obesity issues. In the first survey on the physical health of children, forced to stay at home during a raging pandemic, Delhi’s Ganga Ram Hospital experts reached a sample of 1,309 children from across the national capital.

36.8% respondents reported sedentary life as a major cause of weight gain

27.55% said sleeping late was a triggering factor

22.4% blamed it on overeating

Obesity epidemic

We need to act now and stop youth from becoming diabetic and hypertensive. We have to stop making them prone to disorders. Researchers

Sudhir Kalhan, chairman, Institute of Minimal Access, Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery at the hospital, said today, “We conducted a survey on 1,309 children who were forced to sit at home during the Covid crisis. We found a shocking response as there was an over 10 per cent weight gain among 60 per cent of the respondents, which is 785 children.”

The survey detected that 36.8 per cent of the respondents reported sedentary life as a major cause of weight gain, whereas 27.55 per cent reported sleeping late as the triggering factor. The experts found 22.4 per cent children reporting overeating as the cause of weight gain.

“With no schools, no physical activity, lots of uncertainty, deaths around them and abnormal sleep cycles, children are now facing multiple physical, behavioural and lifestyle disorders, which need immediate medical attention on a larger scale,” Kalhan said, releasing his findings.

Experts warn against a rising epidemic of child obesity and call for policy action, considering 60 per cent of the population is less than 35 years. “Eight per cent GDP growth is encouraging, but we need to act now to stop the young population from becoming diabetic, suffering from mental disorders or becoming hypertensive. All economic growth would have to be diverted towards public health spending if obesity epidemic is not contained now,” the researchers said.