Every fifth child in Ukraine is overweight: new research shows

In Ukraine, one in five children is overweight, which is less than in most European countries, but the problem remains. Children eat less vegetables, spend more time with gadgets, and healthy eating has not yet become the norm in families. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Health, Chief State Sanitary Doctor Ihor Kuzin during a briefing, UNN reports.

It is worth saying that, if we take 2017 as an example, according to official statistical reporting alone, we recorded obesity at 13.3%, and now it is 8.3%. That is, we see a positive trend over the last period

According to him, Ukraine's participation in the study on childhood obesity is critically important in terms of ensuring that our data is used internationally.

We have been able to compare ourselves with other countries and, fortunately, we see that the situation in Ukraine is not the worst, and in some respects it is even better than in some European regions. For example, if we look at the rates of overweight, more than a third of children in Europe or other countries are overweight, while in Ukraine it is only one in five children. If we look, for example, at obesity rates, they are also better, but at the same time there are several important points that should definitely be part of certain management decisions and policy changes 

He noted that the amount of time a child spends with gadgets, i.e. playing mobile games or having fun on weekends, is increasing significantly compared to school hours. This suggests that there is a need for systematic work with parents to implement healthy approaches in families, outside the educational environment.

Kuzin explained that food consumption and healthy eating principles are not as universal as we would like. Almost 4% of students do not eat breakfast at home. This suggests that it is really important for them to have the opportunity to get a healthy meal at school, as it helps to form certain eating habits, especially in the younger generation of Ukrainians.

In addition, the war has shown that consumption of fresh vegetables among children has decreased.

In fact, we can really record that, on the one hand, this is the impact of the war, and on the other hand, perhaps even an incomplete understanding by families of how to properly provide healthy food in the home environment 

Recall

A panel of global experts is proposing a new way to define and diagnose obesity, de-emphasizing the controversial body mass index and hoping to better identify individuals.