Children increase after enrollment

After school enrollment, most children grow up

15/08/2012

According to a study by the Mainz Institute of Sports Science at Johannes Gutenberg University, 20 percent of eight-year-olds are too fat. While the weight development up to the age of five years still corresponds to about 20 years ago, children are gaining weight, especially shortly after enrollment. Sports doctor Professor Pericles Simon suspects the cause, however, more in the family and less in everyday school life.

20 percent of eight-year-olds are overweight
While the children in Germany up to the age of five on average have roughly the same weight as their peers 20 years ago - ten percent of this age group were and are overweight - it comes after enrollment in many children, according to the study to a significant weight gain. Accordingly, 20 percent of eight-year-olds are too fat. Sascha Hoffmann from the Institute of Sports Science at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz explains that three years follow after the age of five, „in which, unlike an international and a German comparison population of that time, we can suddenly find a significant increase in overweight ".

However, the exact causes of many children's weight gain after enrollment are still unclear. Study Director Professor Pericles Simon does not see the reasons in school life: „Our children were also enrolled 20 years ago and are still in a similar school environment today. Only in the past there was no rapid increase in overweight. We are assuming a rather complex interaction of several factors, which are likely to be predominantly in the home environment of children. "The study was published in the journal for obesity „Obesity“ released. (Ag)

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Picture: S. Hofschlaeger