Upstairs in a yellow two-story villa, 13-year-old Adrian and his mother are sitting in an examination room. The department is part of the Children’s Hospital Martina’s pediatric clinic. Adrian has ended his first conversation with the professor and pediatrician Claude Marcus, who has long researched obesity – obesity – among children.
Adrian says that his life changed during the pandemic.
– I often sat still, played video games and chewed all the time. I did not go out and play football with my friends as before. I had no control over my life anymore.
Now he is worried about his future and health.
– There are quite a few things that can happen if you are overweight. Like getting diabetes or other diseases. I do not want that, he says seriously.
The family’s routines changed abruptly when both parents fell ill with corona, Adrian’s mother says.
– We were a very mobile family on a daily basis. We were on the football field with the kids, took that extra walk, played with the cousins outdoors. But when we became ill, we could no longer bear it. The children sat and ate and watched movies, fetched more to eat and continued watching movies.
Children and young people who develop obesity – obesity – have been increasing in the last 20 years, but the pandemic has put the situation at its peak. Data from the Swedish Child Health Care Register show that the proportion of four- and five-year-olds with obesity increased markedly between 2019 and 2021 in the country. The proportion of four-year-olds with obesity increased from 2.7 per cent to 4.2 per cent and the proportion of five-year-olds with obesity increased from 4.7 per cent to 5.7 per cent.
A recent report from the World Health Organization WHO shows that childhood obesity increased in Europe during the pandemic.
Distance education which has meant more sedentary, canceled sports activities, reduction of preschool activities and reduced diet are contributing factors to the increase, says Maja Selin, physiotherapist at Martina Children’s Hospital.
– Many have spent more time at home where there is usually a greater availability of food, which has led to more snacking and a greater energy intake.
The picture is also confirmed by dietitian Malin Ramkloo, who refers to a method in their treatment that allows care and parents to be able to follow the children’s BMI digitally in an app. The care staff could easily see the effects of the pandemic on the results in the tool, says Maja Selin.
Today, children and young people who are receiving treatment for obesity, a more serious and far-reaching disease, says medically responsible doctor Claude Marcus. According to him, there are clear signs that obesity has increased among children between the ages of 10 and 12.
– We see in the national quality register for children with obesity that the children come to the care later. They have more severe obesity when they come to their treatment and fewer go on follow-up visits after one year than before the pandemic. The care has worked much worse during the pandemic for this group, he states.
The Corona Commission states that the number of new visits to obesity clinics decreased between 2019 and 2020. Until 2019, there has been an increasing trend. It is also stated that the reduction is about patients being de-prioritized.
The consequences of having children with obesity coming late in treatment are many and can have far-reaching health effects later in life – it’s not just about the patient finding it harder to lose weight, says Claude Marcus.
– Obesity is a disease we are now beginning to understand, increasing the risk of autoimmune diseases such as MS, rheumatism, asthma and cancer. And it starts at an early age. Therefore, it is important to treat obesity early.
DN has been in contact with a number of regions which state that the number of referrals for new visits to obesity care has increased significantly in 2021 compared with the years between 2018 and 2020.
It is a sign that the patient group is finding its way back to care, according to Claude Marcus.
A consequence of that more and more children are seeking help is that in many places they have to wait for care. Some regions, such as Jönköping and Skåne, cannot provide care to the patient group within the time of the care guarantee. Martina Children’s Hospital, which is part of the Stockholm region, also has a waiting time of six months.
A family in Skåne has for a long time tried to get help for their daughter’s dangerous overweight.
– After conversations with both the school health service and the health center, we parents ended up calling the obesity unit to get a referral, her mother says.
Today, the daughter is 17 years old and the family has been told that the waiting time is twelve months to receive care at the obesity unit. The daughter thus risks not getting into treatment before she turns eighteen.
– I am worried that my daughter who already has a mild depression will have even worse mental health. Today she does nothing outside of school, says the mother who is now considering seeking help abroad.
Facts: Obesity – also called obesity
Overweight is when a person weighs so much that it is unhealthy, but obesity is not a disease.
A person have obesity in severe obesity. Obesity – obesity – is a disease. In obesity, the risk of diseases such as high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes increases.
All regions did not report data to the Swedish Child Health Care Register in 2019, the figures are checked against the regions that provided larger amounts of data in 2019 and 2021, the Swedish Child Health Care Register states.
Risk factors for obesity among children include low socio-economic conditions, foreign-born parents, and fragmented family formation, according to the Corona Commission.
Source: 1177.se and the Swedish Public Health Agency
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