Disparities in weight changes during the COVID‐19 pandemic‐related lockdown in youths

• Published in: Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 789 - 801
• Main Authors: Koebnick, Corinna, Sidell, Margo A., Li, Xia, Resnicow, Ken, Kunani, Poornima, Young, Deborah R., Woolford, Susan J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.03.2023
• Subjects: Adolescent; Body Mass Index; California; Child; Child, Preschool; Communicable Disease Control; COVID-19; Health insurance; Humans; Obesity; Pandemics; Socioeconomic factors; Weight Gain - ethnology; California; Southern California; United States > US
• ISSN: 1930-7381; 1930-739X
• DOI: 10.1002/oby.23645

Objective This study evaluates whether changes in weight among school‐aged youth in California due to the COVID‐19 lockdown vary by social constructs of race/ethnicity and associated social factors. Methods Including 160,472 youth aged 5 to 17 years enrolled at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, mixed effects models stratified by age group were fitted to estimate changes in distance from the median BMI‐for‐age from March 2020 to January 2021 (lockdown) compared with the same period before the pandemic. Results Excess pandemic weight gain was higher among Black and Hispanic youth aged 5 to 17 years than among White and Asian youth; this difference was most pronounced in those aged 5 to 11 years. In youth aged 5 to 11 years, the distance from the median BMI‐for‐age increased by 1.72 kg/m2 (95% CI: 1.61‐1.84) in Hispanic and 1.70 kg/m2 (95% CI: 1.47‐1.94) in Black youth during the lockdown compared with 1.16 kg/m2 (95% CI: 1.02‐1.29) in non‐Hispanic White youth. The excess weight gain was also higher in youth with fewer neighborhood parks and those with state‐subsidized health insurance. Conclusions The COVID‐19 pandemic lockdown led to a gain of excess body weight, particularly for Black and Hispanic youth; this weight gain varied by social factors associated with race and ethnicity.