Philadelphia pediatricians have seen significant weight gain in many young patients due to pandemic stress and blockade. These extra weights mean that children are more likely to get sick if they become infected with COVID-19 than their lean friends.
The city does not hold data on the weight of children, as in COVID cases and hospitalizations. However, pediatricians at three medical centers in the city are seeing a situation that is in line with national trends. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children’s weight gain rate doubled during the pandemic process. A study of more than 400,000 children aged 2 to 19 published in September. It was similar to adult weight gain. Children who were already obese or overweight when the pandemic began tended to see the greatest benefit.
“These kids have gained a lot of weight,” said Stephen Myers, a pediatric obesity surgeon at St. Christopher Children’s Hospital. “I think it’s definitely underreported and underestimated.”
According to the CDC, in the last week of 2021, 280 children nationwide were hospitalized for the virus. This is the most common since the pandemic began. However, vaccination rates for children are anxiously low. In Philadelphia, about 30% of children aged 5 to 11 years are vaccinated at least once, and 44% of children aged 12 to 17 years are fully vaccinated. Vaccines are the best protection for all children, especially those with risk factors such as obesity.
At St. Christophers, Healthy Teens Weight Clinic, which serves about 1,000 children, has a patient who has gained 40-100 pounds in the last two years. Prior to the pandemic, Drexel University pediatrician Daniel Taylor said that about 30% of his patients were overweight or obese. Now he said, it’s 40% to 50%.
According to the CDC, adult obesity is defined as a body mass index greater than 30, but children are compared to other children of the same age and gender, and obesity if the BMI is higher than the other 95% in the group. Is considered. For example, a 10-year-old boy who is 56 inches tall and weighs 102 pounds falls into this category.
The added weight is an independent risk factor for severe COVID, but it is also associated with other risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma.
“This is [pandemic] Her daughter, Jada Pacheco, 16, needed obesity surgery in May to help lose the £ 80-90 she earned in the first year of the pandemic. “She had severe asthma, severe sleep apnea, and severe diabetes. She had many complications just because she was very young.”
Despite these precautions, Pacheco caught COVID-19 in July 2020. The effect it has on asthma is so severe that I spent the night in a hospital receiving oxygen.
“I don’t want to say I was scared because I thought it was okay, but I was nervous because I had asthma,” Pacheco said. “I had a bad cough.”
The overwhelming majority of children with COVID-19 do not require hospitalization, but children who are frequently hospitalized are obese. Almost one-third of children hospitalized for the virus are obese, making it the most common comorbidity in this group, according to a December study by the CDC. Of the 12-17 year olds hospitalized for the virus, 61% were obese.
It is consistent with the experience of a local doctor. A few patients participating in St. Christopher’s program had to be hospitalized for COVID-19, said Vesta Salech, director of gastroenterology at the hospital. At the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, many of the older children in the hospital are obese, said Ron Keren, chief medical officer of the hospital.
“Our ICU kids, older kids, I’m talking about teenagers who don’t have other chronic medical conditions that pose them a risk of severe COVID,” he said. It is a risk factor that leads to serious COVID. “
Keren said there are several factors that doctors believe play a role in the relationship between COVID and obesity. Baseline inflammation caused by obesity can be exacerbated by the virus. Overweight can limit breathing and fat can put pressure on the airways and diaphragm, Keren said.
In Philadelphia, where about a quarter of residents live below the poverty line, 41% of children aged 6 to 17 are overweight or obese, according to 2013 CDC data. In addition, in North Philadelphia, predominantly black and Latin, almost three-quarters of children were overweight.
Poor access to a healthy diet and safe outdoor space for recreation are one of the issues that pediatricians identify as contributing to a patient’s weight problem.
According to a 2019 city survey, the problem is disproportionately affecting the black and brown communities in the city, with 45% of black families living in areas rich in unhealthy food.
Taylor pointed out that the poorest Philadelphians usually have less access to health care, a legacy of systemic racism.
If supermarkets and health foods are out of reach, especially for families without a car, use what’s available at the corner stores and Bodegas to buy high-calorie foods that fill your stomach, but pounds. Also add. Busy parents may also have a hard time finding time to prepare a healthy diet.
The closure of the pandemic school cut off a reliable source of healthy eating for many of his young patients, Taylor said. Some parents were unemployed during the pandemic, while parents who couldn’t work at home had to spend money on childcare.
For young people such as Jada Pacheco Virtual school meant easy access to snacks.
“It was her eating habit of staying at home and going to school at home,” said Matos, who said her daughter had increased by £ 80 to £ 90 between 2020 and 2021. The kitchen because they are at home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. “
In addition to food problems, there is also inactivity born of fear, Taylor pointed out. Neighboring parents at risk of historic gun violence — more than 200 children under the age of 18 were shot dead in the city last year — I don’t want to send them to play.
Doctors admitted that dealing with overweight takes time, and the best immediate step parents can take to protect their children is to vaccinate them.
Anyone who tries to lose weight by changing their diet and adding exercise knows how difficult it is, especially if they have a lot to lose. The 5’4 Jada weighed about 250 pounds before surgery. Her weight loss efforts were only disappointing.
“I couldn’t keep up,” she said. “I give up when I see my weight return.”
Obesity surgery, coupled with habit changes, has changed the situation for Jada, where an increasing number of pediatric patients are relying on procedures that were once reserved for adults.
She has lost more than £ 100 since May. Her weight-related health problems have also diminished — surgery can not only reduce dietary ability, but can also dramatically improve and even reverse diabetes.
“Thanks to God for this program,” Matos said. “My baby is healthy now.”
She said she didn’t even admit that her weight was unhealthy until Pacheco was diagnosed with diabetes. That’s not uncommon, Saleh said. Society sends teens a misleading message about their bodies, sometimes suggesting that they should be as thin as a model. Sometimes encourage them to accept extra weight.
“Some of our adolescents come and go,” Salehi said. “They have anxiety about their bodies and there are other moments when they see positive body images from overweight adolescents and adults. We have some, they are worried about this. Not even on their radar. “
According to Saleh, getting through the complex problems surrounding the body and self-image can be helped by focusing on weight as a measure of health rather than weight. Her program can highlight recovery from type 2 diabetes, or lowering cholesterol levels.
“In conversations with them, we are really trying to focus on the consequences of obesity on their health,” she said.
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