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The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Childhood Obesity and Lifestyle—A Report from Italy

During the COVID-19 lockdown, especially in the first wave of pandemic (March 2020), sedentary lifestyle and calorie intake increase in children became considerably more prevalent. The aim of the present paper was to evaluate changes in children’s weights and nutritional habits during the COVID-19 p...

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Autores principales: Palermi, Stefano, Vecchiato, Marco, Pennella, Sonia, Marasca, Anna, Spinelli, Alessandro, De Luca, Mariarosaria, De Martino, Lorena, Fernando, Fredrick, Sirico, Felice, Biffi, Alessandro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9589932/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36278553
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pediatric14040049
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author Palermi, Stefano
Vecchiato, Marco
Pennella, Sonia
Marasca, Anna
Spinelli, Alessandro
De Luca, Mariarosaria
De Martino, Lorena
Fernando, Fredrick
Sirico, Felice
Biffi, Alessandro
author_facet Palermi, Stefano
Vecchiato, Marco
Pennella, Sonia
Marasca, Anna
Spinelli, Alessandro
De Luca, Mariarosaria
De Martino, Lorena
Fernando, Fredrick
Sirico, Felice
Biffi, Alessandro
author_sort Palermi, Stefano
collection PubMed
description During the COVID-19 lockdown, especially in the first wave of pandemic (March 2020), sedentary lifestyle and calorie intake increase in children became considerably more prevalent. The aim of the present paper was to evaluate changes in children’s weights and nutritional habits during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. In this cross-sectional observational study, for 3 years, as part of the corporate wellness program (2019–2021) in Emilia Romagna region of Italy, anthropometric data of Ferrari car company employers’ children were collected, analyzed, and compared. Moreover, at the visit of November 2020, performed after the first wave of the pandemic with the most rigorous lockdown rules in Italy, a questionnaire on nutritional and lifestyle habits was administered. We evaluated 307 children (163 M, 10.1 ± 2.3 mean aged in 2019). A significant increase in BMI percentile in 2020 (65.2) compared to 2019 (49.2) was observed; it was confirmed, albeit slightly decreased, in 2021 (64.5). About one-third of participants reported an increase in consumption of fatty condiments and more than half report an increase in consumption of junk food. Levels of physical activity were still high during the COVID-19 lockdown, while sleeping time was significantly reduced. Our findings alert us to the importance of carefully monitoring eating behaviors in young to avoid the adoption of unhealthy food habits and prevent childhood obesity, especially during the period of COVID-19 lockdown.
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spelling pubmed-95899322022-10-25 The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Childhood Obesity and Lifestyle—A Report from Italy Palermi, Stefano Vecchiato, Marco Pennella, Sonia Marasca, Anna Spinelli, Alessandro De Luca, Mariarosaria De Martino, Lorena Fernando, Fredrick Sirico, Felice Biffi, Alessandro Pediatr Rep Article During the COVID-19 lockdown, especially in the first wave of pandemic (March 2020), sedentary lifestyle and calorie intake increase in children became considerably more prevalent. The aim of the present paper was to evaluate changes in children’s weights and nutritional habits during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. In this cross-sectional observational study, for 3 years, as part of the corporate wellness program (2019–2021) in Emilia Romagna region of Italy, anthropometric data of Ferrari car company employers’ children were collected, analyzed, and compared. Moreover, at the visit of November 2020, performed after the first wave of the pandemic with the most rigorous lockdown rules in Italy, a questionnaire on nutritional and lifestyle habits was administered. We evaluated 307 children (163 M, 10.1 ± 2.3 mean aged in 2019). A significant increase in BMI percentile in 2020 (65.2) compared to 2019 (49.2) was observed; it was confirmed, albeit slightly decreased, in 2021 (64.5). About one-third of participants reported an increase in consumption of fatty condiments and more than half report an increase in consumption of junk food. Levels of physical activity were still high during the COVID-19 lockdown, while sleeping time was significantly reduced. Our findings alert us to the importance of carefully monitoring eating behaviors in young to avoid the adoption of unhealthy food habits and prevent childhood obesity, especially during the period of COVID-19 lockdown. MDPI 2022-09-29 /pmc/articles/PMC9589932/ /pubmed/36278553 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pediatric14040049 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Palermi, Stefano
Vecchiato, Marco
Pennella, Sonia
Marasca, Anna
Spinelli, Alessandro
De Luca, Mariarosaria
De Martino, Lorena
Fernando, Fredrick
Sirico, Felice
Biffi, Alessandro
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Childhood Obesity and Lifestyle—A Report from Italy
title The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Childhood Obesity and Lifestyle—A Report from Italy
title_full The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Childhood Obesity and Lifestyle—A Report from Italy
title_fullStr The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Childhood Obesity and Lifestyle—A Report from Italy
title_full_unstemmed The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Childhood Obesity and Lifestyle—A Report from Italy
title_short The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Childhood Obesity and Lifestyle—A Report from Italy
title_sort impact of the covid-19 pandemic on childhood obesity and lifestyle—a report from italy
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9589932/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36278553
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pediatric14040049
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