In a study with more than 700 primary school children in Klagenfurt, the Carinthian sports scientist Gerald Jarnig found a rapid increase in the proportion of children who were overweight or obese during the corona pandemic.
According to this, the proportion of children who were overweight or obese rose from September 2019, i.e. before the pandemic, to March 2021 from 20.7 to 26.2 percent. The boys were much more affected by the weight gain: While 15 percent of the girls among the study participants were overweight or obese before the pandemic, in March 2021 it was already 19.6 percent. In contrast, the proportion of overweight or obese boys rose from 15.4 to 21.3 percent.
“The increase in weight is most likely due to the combined effect of reduced physical activity, increased sedentary behavior and a change in diet,” Jarnig said
Source: Nachrichten
