One in three elementary school students in Seoul is obese or overweight.
The obesity rate in elementary school students rose from 15% in 2019, before COVID-19, to 19.5% last year.
According to Shin Hyun-young, a member of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education conducted a sample survey of 3,939 students from 31 elementary schools in Seoul last year and found that the obesity rate was 19.5% and the overweight rate was 13.4%.
That means about 33% of all students weigh more than normal.
Compared to the same survey in 2019, the obesity rate was 15.0% and the overweight rate was 11.8%.
This survey is the result of a student health checkup conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education every year by selecting sample schools from elementary, middle, and high schools and conducted in the first and fourth grades of elementary school, middle school, and high school. .
Looking at the obesity rate among elementary school students over the past five years, it was 9.1% in 2017 and 10.2% in 2018, accounting for 1 in 10 obese children.
The proportion of normal weight decreased from 73.5% in 2017 to 62.6% in 2021, showing that only 6 out of 10 students were of normal weight.
According to the results of a survey of 2,265 people at 30 middle schools in Seoul, the obesity rate among middle school students also increased by 3.9 percentage points between 2019 (15.5%) and 2021 (19.4%).
In particular, the obesity rate among middle school students was somewhat stagnant from 15.7% in 2018 to 15.5% in 2019, but it has risen significantly as the COVID-19 period has passed.
The student obesity rate had previously shown a moderate increase due to changes in eating habits, but it is interpreted that the weight gain is accelerating as school attendance is restricted due to the COVID-19 epidemic and physical activity is reduced.
The normal weight ratio of middle school students gradually decreased from 75.1% in 2017 to 74.3% in 2018 and 72.3% in 2019, but in 2021 it fell by 10.2 percentage points to 64.9%.
On the other hand, the percentage of underweight also rose by 1.0 percentage point from 3.6% in 2019 to 4.6% in 2021.
In the high school health checkup of 2,786 students at 40 high schools, the obesity rate rose only 0.3 percentage points from 23.3% in 2019 to 23.6% in 2021, but the overweight rate jumped 3.8 percentage points from 4.9% to 8.7%.
Rep. Shin said, "The increase in childhood obesity is a serious problem during the prolonged corona virus. It is urgent to prepare countermeasures in school programs such as lifestyle improvement and physical activity promotion that can prevent school-age obesity from leading to chronic diseases." pointed out.