Childhood obesity and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

Childhood obesity continues to be a significant public health problem across the world¹ and can be legitimately described as a global epidemic, it is estimated that by 2020, 158 million children and adolescents aged between 5-19 would be categorized as obese¹. The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) data shows an upward pattern in childhood obesity for the UK, with 2019/2020 data demonstrating that 23% of children in reception class and 35% in year six were living with obesity. The same data also shows a worrying trend of obesity rates doubling between reception and year six². With schools closing many NCMP measurements for 2020 could not be carried out. Follow up of those already identified as outside the healthy weight range were recommended to be deprioritized².