COVID-19-related school closing aggravate obesity and glucose intolerance in pediatric patients with obesity

Abstract

It is important to pay attention to the indirect effects of the social distancing implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on children and adolescent health. The aim of the present study was to explore impacts of a reduction in physical activity caused by COVID-19 outbreak in pediatric patients diagnosed with obesity. This study conducted between pre-school closing and school closing period and 90 patients aged between 6- and 18-year-old were included. Comparing the variables between pre-school closing period and school closing period in patients suffering from obesity revealed significant differences in variables related to metabolism such as body weight z-score, body mass index z-score, liver enzymes and lipid profile. We further evaluated the metabolic factors related to obesity. When comparing patients with or without nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), only hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) was the only difference between the two time points (p < 0.05). We found that reduced physical activity due to school closing during COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated obesity among children and adolescents and negatively affects the HbA1C increase in NAFLD patients compared to non-NAFLD patients.