Childhood obesity, or kids being too heavy for their age and height, is a big problem around the world.
Many things can cause it. Sometimes it’s because kids are eating too much unhealthy food or not moving around enough. Other times, it might be because of the child’s genes, their lifestyle, or where they live.
But now, a group of scientists in Catalonia, a region in Spain, think they’ve found another cause – air pollution.
The Big Move: How the Study Was Done
The scientists, who work at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and IDIAP Jordi Gol, ran a huge study with over 46,000 kids. They looked at kids aged 2 to 17 who had moved house once between 2011 and 2018.
By looking at the kids’ height and weight before and after they moved, the scientists could calculate their body mass index, or BMI. This is a number doctors use to see if someone is a healthy weight for their height.
The scientists also looked at how clean or dirty the air was in each kid’s old and new homes. They measured this by looking at how much of certain bad things, like NO2, PM10, and PM2.5, were in the air.
These are types of air pollution that can come from things like cars, factories, and wood-burning stoves.
More Pollution, More Pounds: What the Study Found
Here’s what the scientists found: if a kid moved to a place with dirtier air, their BMI went up a little bit. This was true no matter which type of bad thing was in the air.
The effect was also stronger in younger kids. On the other hand, if a kid moved to a place with cleaner air, their BMI didn’t change much.
Interestingly, if a kid moved to a place with about the same level of air pollution, their BMI went down a little bit.
The scientists think this might be because these places are easier to walk around in or have more places for kids to play. Or, it could be because moving house is stressful, and stress can sometimes make people lose weight.
One important thing the scientists found was that how much money a kid’s family had didn’t change these results. This is different from what some other studies have found.
A Breath of Fresh Air: What This Means for Everyone
Even though each kid’s BMI only went up a little bit, this could be a big deal when you think about all the kids in the world.
More than half of all people live in cities, where the air is often dirtier. If all those kids are gaining a little bit of weight because of air pollution, that adds up to a lot of extra pounds!
This study could help us understand why so many kids are becoming overweight and how to stop it. But, the scientists still aren’t sure exactly how air pollution might make kids heavier.
They think it could be because dirty air makes our bodies more stressed or less healthy in other ways. Or, it could be because if the air is dirty, kids might not want to play outside as much.
Whatever the reason, it’s clear that we need to work on cleaning up our air.
This won’t just help kids stay a healthy weight – it will also make everyone healthier in lots of other ways. After all, clean air is something we all need to live, no matter where we are or how old we are.
More Questions, More Answers
As they continue their work, the scientists will keep looking for more answers. They plan to do more studies like this one to see how the environment affects other health problems.
They’ll also keep trying to figure out exactly how air pollution might make kids heavier.
In the meantime, we can all do our part to help. We can work to make our air cleaner, and we can encourage kids to eat healthy food and move around as much as possible.
That way, we can help all kids grow up to be as healthy as they can be.
If you care about weight loss, please read studies about popular weight loss diets linked to heart disease and cancer, and this exercise has unique benefits for weight loss.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about how drinking milk affects the risks of heart disease and cancer and results showing Keto diet may improve blood sugar in cancer patients.
The study was published in Environmental Pollution.
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