BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Experts hypothesized increased weight gain in children associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Our objective was to evaluate whether the rate of change of child body mass index (BMI) increased during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with prepandemic years. METHODS The study population of 1996 children ages 2 to 19 years with at least 1 BMI measure before and during the COVID-19 pandemic was drawn from 38 pediatric cohorts across the United States participating in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes-wide cohort study. We modeled change in BMI using linear mixed models, adjusting for age, sex, race, ethnicity, maternal education, income, baseline BMI category, and type of BMI measure. Data collection and analysis were approved by the local institutional review board of each institution or by the central Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes institutional review board. RESULTS BMI increased during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with previous years (0.24 higher annual gain in BMI during the pandemic compared with previous years, 95% confidence interval 0.02 to 0.45). Children with BMI in the obese range compared with the healthy weight range were at higher risk for excess BMI gain during the pandemic, whereas children in higher-income households were at decreased risk of BMI gain. CONCLUSIONS One effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is an increase in annual BMI gain during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the 3 previous years among children in our national cohort. This increased risk among US children may worsen a critical threat to public health and health equity.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行期间体重指数的变化。


背景和目标 专家推测儿童体重增加与 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 大流行有关。我们的目的是评估儿童体重指数 (BMI) 的变化率在 COVID-19 大流行期间与大流行前相比是否有所增加。方法 研究对象为 1996 名年龄在 2 至 19 岁之间、在 COVID-19 大流行之前和期间至少有 1 BMI 测量值的儿童，这些儿童来自美国各地参与环境对儿童健康结果影响的队列研究的 38 个儿科队列。我们使用线性混合模型对 BMI 的变化进行建模，调整年龄、性别、种族、民族、母亲教育、收入、基线 BMI 类别和 BMI 测量类型。数据收集和分析得到了每个机构的当地机构审查委员会或中央环境对儿童健康结果影响机构审查委员会的批准。结果 与往年相比，COVID-19 大流行期间 BMI 有所增加（与往年相比，大流行期间 BMI 的年增幅增加了 0.24，95% 置信区间为 0.02 至 0.45）。与健康体重范围相比，BMI 处于肥胖范围的儿童在大流行期间 BMI 过度增加的风险较高，而高收入家庭的儿童 BMI 增加的风险较低。结论 COVID-19 大流行的影响之一是，与前三年相比，我们全国队列中的儿童在 COVID-19 大流行期间每年的 BMI 增加有所增加。美国儿童面临的风险增加可能会加剧对公共卫生和健康公平的严重威胁。