Children’s Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

・The state of children’s health in 2020 was analyzed with the School Health Examination Survey (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology).
・Obesity in elementary school students increased due to COVID-19.
・On the other hand, the number of high-school students who lost weight (too much) increased.
・The increases in obesity and thinness in wealthy regions are particularly striking.
　-> It is suggested that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were significant in metropolitan areas.

・Possible factors
　・Lack of exercise due to a sharp decrease in opportunities for going out and having contact with people
　・Poor mental condition
　・Deterioration of state of nutrition due to reduced income

・Indices show that obesity in early life has negative impacts into the future (health and economic aspects).
　-> The medium- to long-term impacts are concerning.

・The rate of obesity among elementary school students increased for both boys and girls.
・The rate for boys also increased among junior high school students.
・School Health Examination Survey, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
・The average for 2010 to 2019 shows a 95% confidence interval.

・The rate of thinness among high-school students increased for both boys and girls.
・The rate for boys also increased among junior high school students.
・School Health Examination Survey, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
・The average for 2010 to 2019 shows a 95% confidence interval.

・In which regions did obesity and thinness increase?

・Restrictions on going out and self-restraint on activity due to COVID-19 may have had a significant impact on people’s lives, especially in metropolitan areas.
・We compared the group of prefectures at the top of the GDP table [1] and the group of prefectures beneath them [2].
　[1]1st to 8th for GDP by prefecture:
　　Tokyo, Aichi Prefecture, Osaka Prefecture, Kanagawa Prefecture, Saitama Prefecture, Hyogo Prefecture, Chiba Prefecture, Fukuoka Prefecture
　[2]9th to 47th for GDP by prefecture:
　　The other 39 prefectures
・We obtained the rates for obesity and thinness in each group using the weighted averages of the rates of obesity and thinness among the target ages (population estimates).
・(Reference) Population ratios of each group

・Obesity among elementary school students
・Pre-COVID-19: Rates were higher in regions ranked lower economically.
・2020: Rates increased in regions ranked top economically -> the gap with the regions ranked lower economically decreased.

・Thinness of high-school students (girls in particular)
・Pre-COVID-19: Rates were higher in regions ranked top economically.
・2020: Rates increased in regions ranked top economically -> the gap with the regions ranked lower economically expanded.

・It is possible that the physical and mental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were great in metropolitan areas.

・No significant deterioration was observed compared with the pre-COVID-19 values.
　(See reference materials)

・Skin disease
・Tooth decay
・Eyesight

・We calculated the degree of obesity from standard body weight by gender, age and height (below).
　We defined obesity as cases where the degree of obesity is 20% or higher and thinness as cases where the degree of obesity is -20% or lower.

　Degree of obesity = (actual weight (kg) - standard weight by height (kg)) / standard weight by height (kg) x 100 (%)

・【[Reference] Standard body weight for average heights as of the FY2020 survey
　Source: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, School Health Examination Statistics “(Reference) Method for calculating trends in obesity and thinness among children”