Childhood obesity continues to rise in the United States, reaching 19.3 percent at latest measurement, up by 5 percentage points for children ages 2-19 in two decades, said the annual State of Childhood Obesity report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Obesity “continues to be a national public health crisis, putting millions of children at greater risk for Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and other serious conditions,” said the report.
“Early research shows a strong connection between obesity and Covid-19,” said the report. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention includes obesity as one of several underlying conditions that increases risk of serious illness from Covid-19 among people of any age. People with obesity tend to become sicker, are more likely to be hospitalized and are even more likely to die when Covid-19 strikes.”
The report recommended a temporary 15 percent increase in SNAP benefits during the pandemic and for the longer term, a 20 percent increase “to enhance anti-hunger and anti-poverty effects while reforming the underlying system of calculating food costs and benefit amounts.” WIC should be expanded to cover children in low-income families to age 6, up from the current limit of age 5, said the report.
The State of Childhood Obesity report is available here.