Comparison of anthropometric parameters and laboratory test results before and after the COVID-19 outbreak among Chinese children aged 3–18 years

DOI record: { "DOI": "10.3389/fpubh.2023.1048087", "ISSN": [ "2296-2565" ], "URL": "http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1048087", "abstract": "<jats:sec><jats:title>Objective</jats:title><jats:p>To compare the physiological health of Chinese children around the COVID-19 lockdown.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>We extracted data on children's anthropometric and laboratory parameters from May to November in both 2019 and 2020 from the Health Checkup Center, Children's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China. Overall, 2162 children aged 3~18 years without comorbidities in 2019 and 2646 in 2020 were assessed. Mann Whitney U tests were used to compare differences between the above health indicators before and after COVID-19 outbreak. Quantile regression analyses adjusted for age, sex and body mass index (BMI) were also used in analysis. Chi-square tests and Fisher's exact tests were used for comparing differences of categorical variables.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Compared with children examined in 2019 before the outbreak, children in 2020 had a higher median z score of BMI for age (−0.16 vs. −0.31), total cholesterol (TC, 4.34 vs. 4.16 mmol/L), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C, 2.48 vs. 2.15 mmol/L), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C, 1.45 vs. 1.43 mmol/L) and serum uric acid (290 vs. 282 μmol/L), and a lower hemoglobin (Hb, 134 vs. 133 g/L), triglycerides (TG, 0.70 vs. 0.78 mmol/L) and 25(OH)D (45.8 vs. 52.2 nmol/L), all <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05. No differences were identified for waist height ratio, blood pressure and fasting glucose (both <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;gt; 0.05). However, in regression models after adjusting, BMI, TC, LDL-C, blood glucose and sUA were positively correlated with year; while Hb, TG and 25(OH)D were negatively correlated with year (all <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05). Accordingly, children in 2020 had a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity (20.6 vs. 16.7%, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.001), hypercholesterol (16.2%vs. 10.2%, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.001), high LDL-C (10 vs. 2.9%, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.001), hyperuricemia (18.9 vs.15.1%, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.002), vitamin D deficiency (22.6 vs. 8.1%, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.001) and a lower prevalence of high TG (4.3 vs. 2.8%, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.018) compared with children in 2019.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>In this real-world study, we found that long-term lockdown due to COVID-19 outbreak might cause adverse impact on children's metabolic health, which might increase their future risk of cardiovascular diseases. Thus, parents, health professionals, educationists, and caregivers should pay more attention to children's dietary pattern and lifestyle, especially in this new normal against COVID-19.</jats:p></jats:sec>", "alternative-id": [ "10.3389/fpubh.2023.1048087" ], "author": [ { "affiliation": [], "family": "Dong", "given": "Wen-Hong", "sequence": "first" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Gu", "given": "Tian-Miao", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Zhu", "given": "Bing-Quan", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Shen", "given": "Ying", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "He", "given": "Xin-Yu", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Bai", "given": "Guan-Nan", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Shao", "given": "Jie", "sequence": "additional" } ], "container-title": "Frontiers in Public Health", "container-title-short": "Front. Public Health", "content-domain": { "crossmark-restriction": true, "domain": [ "frontiersin.org" ] }, "created": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 3, 14 ] ], "date-time": "2023-03-14T05:24:43Z", "timestamp": 1678771483000 }, "deposited": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 3, 14 ] ], "date-time": "2023-03-14T05:24:51Z", "timestamp": 1678771491000 }, "funder": [ { "DOI": "10.13039/501100012166", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "name": "National Key Research and Development Program of China" }, { "DOI": "10.13039/501100001809", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "name": "National Natural Science Foundation of China" } ], "indexed": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 3, 15 ] ], "date-time": "2023-03-15T04:48:32Z", "timestamp": 1678855712988 }, "is-referenced-by-count": 0, "issued": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 3, 14 ] ] }, "license": [ { "URL": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "content-version": "vor", "delay-in-days": 0, "start": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 3, 14 ] ], "date-time": "2023-03-14T00:00:00Z", "timestamp": 1678752000000 } } ], "link": [ { "URL": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1048087/full", "content-type": "unspecified", "content-version": "vor", "intended-application": "similarity-checking" } ], "member": "1965", "original-title": [], "prefix": "10.3389", "published": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 3, 14 ] ] }, "published-online": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 3, 14 ] ] }, "publisher": "Frontiers Media SA", "reference": [ { "key": "B1", "unstructured": "Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic" }, { "key": "B2", "unstructured": "WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard" }, { "DOI": "10.1001/jama.2020.6130", "article-title": "Association of public health interventions with the epidemiology of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China", "author": "Pan", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "first-page": "1915", "journal-title": "JAMA.", "key": "B3", "volume": "19", "year": "2020" }, { "DOI": "10.1186/s12967-020-02399-5", "article-title": "Eating habits and lifestyle changes during COVID-19 lockdown: an Italian survey", "author": "Di Renzo", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "first-page": "229", "journal-title": "J Transl Med.", "key": "B4", "volume": "1", "year": "2020" }, { "DOI": "10.3390/nu13041197", "article-title": "An Italian survey on dietary habits and changes during the COVID-19 lockdown", "author": "Izzo", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "first-page": "1197", "journal-title": "Nutrients.", "key": "B5", "volume": "13", "year": "2021" }, { "DOI": "10.3390/ijerph17186469", "article-title": "Changes in physical activity and sedentary behavior in response to COVID-19 and their associations with mental health in 3052 US adults", "author": "Meyer", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "first-page": "6469", "journal-title": "Int J Environ Res Public Health.", "key": "B6", "volume": "17", "year": "2020" }, { "DOI": "10.1016/j.appet.2020.105015", "article-title": "Changes in dietary patterns among youths in China during COVID-19 epidemic: the COVID-19 impact on lifestyle change survey (COINLICS)", "author": "Jia", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "first-page": "105015", "journal-title": "Appetite.", "key": "B7", "volume": "158", "year": "2021" }, { "DOI": "10.1167/iovs.62.10.37", "article-title": "COVID-19 home quarantine accelerated the progression of myopia in children aged 7 to 12 years in China", "author": "Ma", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "first-page": "37", "journal-title": "Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci.", "key": "B8", "volume": "62", "year": "2021" }, { "DOI": "10.3390/nu13030930", "article-title": "Lifestyle changes and determinants of children's and adolescents' body weight increase during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Greece: the COV-EAT study", "author": "Androutsos", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "first-page": "930", "journal-title": "Nutrients.", "key": "B9", "volume": "13", "year": "2021" }, { "key": "B10", "unstructured": "Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. 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