USDA’s Economic Research Service reports behavior changes during the pandemic exacerbated an already existing adult obesity epidemic.
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in 2020, studies using limited online surveys found evidence of weight gain among U.S. adults. However, because the pandemic surveys did not represent the overall U.S. adult population, findings derived from them did not fully show how much obesity rates changed for adults during the pandemic. The study found that, compared with a pre-pandemic baseline period, adult obesity prevalence was three percent higher over the period from March 13, 2020, to March 18, 2021, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Findings also showed statistically significant changes in each of the four obesity-related behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participation in exercise rose 4.4 percent, and people slept 1.5 percent longer. Meanwhile, the number of days in the period of a month in which alcohol was consumed was 2.7 percent higher, and cigarette smoking dropped by four percent.
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