COVID‐19–Related School Closings and Risk of Weight Gain Among Children

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is causing substantial morbidity and mortality, straining health care systems, shutting down economies, and closing school districts. While it is a priority to mitigate its immediate impact, we want to call attention to the pandemic’s longer-term effect on children’s health; COVID-19, via these school closures, may exacerbate the epidemic of childhood obesity and increase disparities in obesity risk. In many areas of the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic has closed schools, and some of these school systems are not expected to reopen this school year. The experiences in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore suggest that social distancing orders, if lifted after…

• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: R01HL141427, UH3OD023290
• NH
  National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

  Award: R01HL141427