ArticleInternational journal of obesity (2005)2022
Age- and weight group-specific weight gain patterns in children and adolescents during the 15 years before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in International journal of obesity (2005), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 277 citations in OpenAlex.
- Surgery for the treatment of obesity in children and adolescents.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Obesity and COVID-19 in Children and Adolescents: Reciprocal Detrimental Influence-Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Social Isolation and Excessive Weight Gain in Infants: A Nationwide Cohort Study of 1.8 Million Infants.Journal of paediatrics and child health · 2026Article
- Increasing incidence of type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents from 2012 to 2021 in Germany: trends before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.European journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- The effect of Covid 19 pandemic on childhood obesity in Turkey.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Associations of body weight and COVID-19 with autoimmunity in pediatric new-onset type 1 diabetes: results from the prospective DPV registry.BMJ open diabetes research & care · 2026Article
- Article
- Epigenetics of Childhood Obesity.Hormone research in paediatrics · 2026Review
- Parallel Increase in Childhood Anorexia Nervosa and Early Puberty During the COVID-19 Pandemic.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Socio-spatial differences in overweight and obesity among preschoolers: An overview using data from the school entry examination.Journal of health monitoring · 2026Article
- Body Composition and Its Correlates in Children and Adolescents Living in Germany: A Cross-Sectional Study.European journal of sport science · 2025Article
- Trends in overweight and socioeconomic inequality among children and adolescents aged 7-18 years in China from 2010 to 2020.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Secular Trends in Height, Body Mass, and BMI Among Polish Boys in Eastern Regions from 1986 to 2021: Cross-Decade Analysis of Nutritional Status.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Associations of behavioral, motivational, and socioeconomic factors with BMI among children and adolescents.Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Impact of COVID-19 Diagnosis on Weight Trajectories of Children in the US National COVID Cohort Collaborative.Childhood obesity (Print) · 2025Article
- Changes in pediatric obesity rates before and during the COVID pandemic in a Federally Qualified Health Center.Preventive medicine reports · 2025Article
- Relationship Between the Use of Screens and the Motor Development of Children from 8 to 10 Years of Age.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on sarcopenic obesity among children between 6 and 10 years of age: a prospective study.European journal of pediatrics · 2025Article
- The prevalence of overweight among 4-year-olds during and after the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with socioeconomic burden.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2025Article
- Determinants of Longitudinal Changes in Exercise Blood Pressure in a Population of Young Athletes: The Role of BMI.Journal of cardiovascular development and disease · 2025Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
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Abstract
BACKGROUND/
objectivesThere is a concern that measures aiming to limit a further spread of COVID-19, e.g., school closures and social distancing, cause an aggravation of the childhood obesity epidemic. Therefore, we compared BMI trends during the 15 years before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. SUBJECTS/
methodsTo assess the change in weight dynamics during the first months of COVID-19, we compared the trends of 3-month change in BMI-SDS (ΔBMI-SDS) and the proportions of children showing a high positive (HPC) or high negative (HNC) weight change between 2005 and 2019 and the respective changes from 2019 (pre-pandemic) to 2020 (after the onset of anti-pandemic measures) in more than 150,000 children (9689 during the pandemic period). The period of 3 months corresponds approximately to the first lockdown period in Germany.
resultsDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, we found a substantial weight gain across all weight and age groups, reflected by an increase in the 3-month change in BMI-SDS (β = 0.05, p < 0.001), an increase in the proportion of children showing HPC (OR = 1.4, p < 0.001), and a decrease in the proportion of children showing HNC (OR = 0.7, p < 0.001). Besides, we found the same trends since 2005 on a low but stable level with a yearly increase of ΔBMI-SDS by β = 0.001 (p < 0.001), the odds of HPC increased by OR
conclusionsThere are positive dynamics in different measures of weight change, indicating a positive trend in weight gain patterns, especially within the group of children with obesity. These dynamics are likely to be escalated by COVID-19-related measures. Thus, they may lead to a significant further aggravation of the childhood obesity pandemic.
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