Children with asthma gained more weight during the Coronavirus Disease-2019 pandemic than in previous years: a case-control study

Abstract

Objective:

The objective of our study to evaluate weight changes and factors influencing weight gain in children with asthma during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Methods:

The study included 100 children with asthma, aged 5–17, from two regions in Turkey. Face-to-face written questionnaires were used, and siblings closest in age sharing the same household were taken as controls. Only 65 of these children had healthy sibling(s), aged between 2 and 25 years. One hundred children with asthma were compared in terms of weight gain and lifestyle factors before (March 2019 to March 2020) and after the pandemic (March 2020 to March 2021). To determine whether the weight gain differed from the control group, the 65 children with asthma were compared to their siblings.

Results:

Survey responses indicate that children with asthma performed less physical activity, were exposed to screens more, and slept later during the pandemic period than pre-pandemic (p = 0.003, p < 0.001, and p ≤ 0.001, respectively). Children with asthma and their siblings gained more weight during the pandemic than before the pandemic (both p < 0.001). However, children with asthma gained significantly more weight than their non-asthmatic siblings during the pandemic (p = 0.011). There was no statistical relationship between weight gain and physical activity, screen time, or sleep status.

Conclusions:

Children with asthma gained more weight during the COVID-19 pandemic than before the pandemic. They also gained more weight than their non-asthmatic siblings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords:

• Childhood asthma
• Covid-19
• obesity
• physical activity
• screens time
• sleep time
• weight gain

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.