Physical Changes of Preschool Children during COVID-19 School Closures in Fujian, China

Guobo Li, Le Yang, Xingyan Xu, Mingjun Chen, Yingying Cai, Yeying Wen, Xiaoxu Xie, Xinyue Lu, Suping Luo, Shaowei Lin (), Huangyuan Li () and Siying Wu ()
Additional contact information
Guobo Li: Department of Child Healthcare Centre, Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital, College of Clinical Medicine for Obstetrics & Gynecology and Pediatrics, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350001, China
Le Yang: School of Public Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350122, China
Xingyan Xu: School of Public Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350122, China
Mingjun Chen: School of Public Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350122, China
Yingying Cai: Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Fujian Children’s Hospital, Fuzhou 350014, China
Yeying Wen: School of Public Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350122, China
Xiaoxu Xie: School of Public Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350122, China
Xinyue Lu: School of Public Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350122, China
Suping Luo: School of Public Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350122, China
Shaowei Lin: School of Public Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350122, China
Huangyuan Li: School of Public Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350122, China
Siying Wu: School of Public Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350122, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 20, 1-14

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic may constitute an “obesogenic lifestyle” that results in exacerbating childhood obesity. However, studies investigating regional sociodemographic factors including different age groups or sexes in children with obesity are lacking. We aimed to clarify the high obesity prevalence populations of preschool children to provide a regional basis for children’s health policy during the COVID-19 school closures. From May to September 2019, a total of 29,518 preschool children were included in a large sample, multicenter cross-sectional study to explore physical status in Fujian Province by stratified cluster random sampling. In October 2019 and October 2020, we also conducted a cross-sectional study exploring physical development including changes in height, weight, and BMI of 1688 preschool children in Fuzhou before and after the COVID-19 school closures. Student’ s t -test, Mann–Whitney U test, or chi-square test was used to assess differences in physical development and overweight and obesity rates among preschool children before and after school closures. For regional factors, the weight of urban preschool children of all ages became higher after the outbreak ( p (age 3–4) = 0.009; p (age 4–5) < 0.001; p (age 5–6) = 0.002). For sex factors, overweight and obesity in boys had a greater prevalence than in girls before and after the outbreak. In four age groups, overweight and obesity rates in the 5-year-old group (15.5% and 9.9%) were higher than before (11.4% and 6.0%). The weight and BMI of 4- to 5-year-old children also increased faster than before ( p < 0.001). The COVID-19 pandemic has promoted the epidemic of childhood obesity. Living in urban/coastal (economically developed) areas, boys, and aged 4–6 years old may be a susceptible population to obesity development after the outbreak.

Keywords: weight; BMI; COVID-19; preschoolers; public health prevention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13699/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13699/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:13699-:d:949684

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().