Dynamics of childhood obesity in Hong Kong throughout the COVID-19 pandemic before and after the school closures: a 3-year longitudinal study

Abstract

<h3>Objective</h3><p>This study is to evaluate if there is any difference in the balance between incidence of and remission from overweight/obesity in Hong Kong school-age children before and during the COVID-19 pandemic over three years.</p><h3>Methods</h3><p>This is a retrospective <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/longitudinal-analysis" title="Learn more about longitudinal study from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages">longitudinal study</a> that involved children aged 6–16 years from a database of the School Physical Fitness Award Scheme.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>2765 students were longitudinally followed up for two years. The prevalence of childhood overweight/obesity was increased between the 2019 and 2021 academic years (<em>P</em> < 0.001). During the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of obesity remission significantly reduced by 7.9 % (<em>P</em> = 0.003), at a background of a plateau of obesity among children and adolescents.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Our study provides evidence on the impact of school closure and home <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/confinement" title="Learn more about confinement from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages">confinement</a> as a standard infection control measure for the prevention of COVID-19, which are likely to break the balance between incidence of and remission from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/childhood-obesity" title="Learn more about childhood obesity from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages">childhood obesity</a>.</p>