Yasmina Kattou
06:07, April 26, 2022modified to
06:10 a.m., April 26, 2022
One consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic has gone unnoticed in France: the explosion of childhood obesity. As revealed by a study carried out in Val-de-Marne, the successive confinements had an impact on their weight. In 2019, this disease affected nearly 4% of French children; 20% were overweight. Although these figures are much higher than those of the 1970s, they had been stable for twenty years. The pandemic has changed that.
The successive confinements had an impact on the weight of the children. This is revealed by a study carried out in the Val-de-Marne. The PMI (maternal child protection) analyzed the data of 48,119 4-year-old children (age, size, sex, whether the nursery school was in REP or not). In three school years, the observation is clear: the number ofobese children doubled compared to the 2018-2019 school year.
11.2% overweight children
Blame it on our behavior, which has changed since the arrival of the Covid. “In 2018-2019, we have 8.6% of overweight children. In 2020-2021, we have 11.2%. In 2018, we have 2.8% of children with obesity”, explains at the microphone of Europe 1 the head of the study Marie-Laure Baranne, head of the study department at the PMI of Val-de-Marne.
“All good habits are to be taken”
“In 2021, we have 4.6%, so it is still increasing a lot. We have identified two risk factors for the increase in overweight and obesity in these children: being a girl and being in a school in priority and priority plus education zone. Our hypothesis is to say that the confinements, the difficulty, even the impossibility of playing sports with others, the modification of the diet, all of this contributes to thinking that it has must have had an impact. The idea of taking up these questions because these children are still young so everything is possible. All the good habits are still to be taken.”
