New Kaiser Study Shows Kids Gained the Pandemic Pudge

According to a study conducted by Kaiser Permanente, nearly 200,000 SoCal children gained excess weight during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially those between the ages of five and eleven years old. The results were released on Monday.

It’d be safe to assume heading into the shutdown that happened last year around the month of March that those being sent home from school to transition to the online learning format would experience weight gain simply since they’d spend their days at home and inside. “When we compared the weight gain among children from 2019 and 2020, we found that there was more weight gained during the pandemic for youths of all ages,” said senior author Corinna Koebnick of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation.

Koebnick continued, “As children go back to school it will be important to focus on health and physical activity to help children not carry unwanted extra weight into adulthood.”

Electronic health records were pulled of 191,509 members from March 1st, 2019 and January 31st, 2021.

As the availability of outdoor activities returns, it’s important now more than ever that children get out and maintain their activity to shed the early weight and not take it into adulthood with them.