As this chart shows, the percentage of obese children between the ages of 10-17 in the United States went from 31% to 32.1% between 2019 and 2020. This is an increase of 1.1% in the total population, however, it is important to note that the average annual percentage change in obese children was -.1% from 2016 to 2018. So, let's take 1.1%, which is the change from 2019-2020, and subtract it by -.1% which is the average annual change between 2016 and 2018. We get |1.1- (-0.1)/-0.1|=12. This means that the percentage change in obese children was almost 12 times higher when comparing the average annual change from the years 2016-2018 and 2019-2020.
It is difficult to attribute the sharp difference to any particular event or policy. Specifically, we could not find any correlation between the COVID-19 lockdowns and childhood obesity. Many parents were raising the prospect that if children are not getting any activity in school, they will become fatter and unhealthier. So, we looked at states with the strictest lockdowns provisions and compared them with states that had lenient lockdown provisions and found that states such as CA with strict school lockdowns saw a decrease in their childhood obesity population. However, Florida, which had very little school lockdowns, saw one of the highest increases in their childhood obesity numbers during the same period.
Much has been attributed to the Covid lockdowns- from economic harm to social harm wrought about by lower overall social activity and interaction. Some parents have blamed Covid as a conduit for an increase in childhood obesity. However, one thing is evident when comparing childhood obesity among states with different lockdown provisions- childhood obesity increases cannot be tied directly to Covid lockdowns.
