Soon after the epidemic began a year ago, Americans began joking about the dreaded “quarantine 15”, worrying that food was being stuck in computer screens in homes and that Netflix could gain weight when glazed.
The concern is real, but assessing the scope of the problem has been a challenge. Surveys that only ask people about their weight are notoriously unreliable, and many medical visits have been virtual.
Objective Steps – Using a Bluetooth-connected smart scale to measure weights now a small study suggests that adults under the order in the shelter gain more than half a pound every 10 days.
It translates to about two pounds a month, says Dr. G. Gregory M., senior author of a research paper published Monday in the peer-reviewed JAMA Network Open. Said Marx. He added that Americans who kept their lockdown habit could easily gain 20 pounds in one year.
“We know that weight gain in the U.S. is a public health problem, so anything that makes it worse is definitely relevant, and the order in the shelter is so ubiquitous that the number of people affected by it makes it highly relevant.” D San. Dr. Marcus, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
While it is almost impossible to generalize based on the study – which included less than 300 people spread across the United States – all participants were looking for their weight regularly.
D states. Marx noted that many of these people were losing weight before ordering asylum in their states. “These individuals are generally more concerned with their health and are more disciplined and it is appropriate to assume on top matters,” he said. “It suggests we can underestimate – that this is the tip of the iceberg.”
Being overweight is associated with an increased risk of developing more serious Covid-19 disease, and the United States already has the highest weight in the world and the highest rate of obesity. Some 42 percent of American adults over the age of 20 have obesity, as defined by body mass index, while the other 32 percent of Americans are just overweight.
The risk of serious illness has also been documented in overweight or obese, young adults. Many states are giving preference to people overweight or obese for vaccinations, as well as people with other chronic conditions such as diabetes or hypertension.
The new study analyzed data obtained from 269 participants who were involved in an ongoing cardiology study, the Health Heart Study. They volunteered to report weight measurements with smart scales connected to Bluetooth and kept their weight regular; The researchers collected 7,444 weight measurements over a four-month period, averaging 28 weight measurements from each participant.
The group was by no means nationally representative, so the results are not generalizable: about three-quarters were white, and only 3.5 called black or African-American. percent percent; About 3 percent are identified as Asian-American. The average age was 51, and they were divided almost equally among men and women.
Participants were from 37 states and the District of Columbia. The researchers analyzed weight measurements taken between February 1, 2020 and June 1, 2020, to see changes in weight both before and after asylum-place orders were issued for each state.
Participants largely lost pounds before the orders were issued, with their weight increasing by about six-tenths of a pound every 10 days after the order was issued, regardless of where they were in the country and in the long run. Medical conditions.
Lockdowns have definitely had an effect on diet, what people eat and how often they eat. But the restrictions also reduced hydrangea physical activity, which is part and parcel of everyday life, the researchers said.
“If you think about people traveling, running on the subway or bus stop, or sending a letter at a post office fee, or stopping at a store – we burn a lot of calories in activities other than exercise in everyday life,” said Pennington Biomedical Research, part of Louisiana State University. Said Lane Redman, a professor of clinical physiology at the center.
His research found that people ate a healthier diet in the early days of the shutdown but were more sedentary.
An earlier study by UCSF researchers looked at daily step counts, tracked by smartphones, in nearly half a million people in nearly 200 countries. The number of steps taken by people has dropped by 27 per cent in the month since the outbreak was declared by the World Health Organization.
Concerns about exercise have also spread to children who are known to pack on unwanted pounds during the summer break months when they are not in school. Andrew G., an associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. The risk is higher for Hispanic and black children than white children, said Randall, author of a recent paper expressing concern that school closures would increase existing ethnicity. Health inequality.
“We argued that being out of school, which we think would last six months and last longer, would be like a summer break, but even worse, because everyone is on a shelf-stable calorie-packed diet. Will load. , And not to stay indoors, ”he said. “Everything that makes summer dangerous for children will be exacerbated by the lockdown.”
