Childhood obesity in central Indiana has increased 36 percent from 2014 to 2022. That's according to a report from the Indiana University Indianpolis school of public health.
Tom Duszynski, professor of public health at IUPUI, said that the pandemic is a part of why this occurred, but it isn't the only reason.
According to the report, the largest increase, 69 percent, was among Hispanic children. A similar increase, 66 percent, was reported among Asian children. Duszynski said that they do not yet know the reason why.
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The report also found a 96 percent increase for 2- to 5- years- old; a 40 percent increase for 6- to 11- years- old and a 26 percent increase for 12- to 19- years- old.
Duszynski said the main goal is to learn more about the obesity problem in children.
“The goal is to simply say, we know we have an obesity problem, but we don’t know how bad it is because a lot of times many of these reports they use self-reported data which may not be as accurate,” said Duszynski. “There isn't a single cause that were able to see to say that this is what led to the problem,” said Duszynski.
