Lockdowns implemented across the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic have negatively impacted diet, sleep, and physical activity among children with obesity, according to University at Buffalo research.

The study, published in April in Obesity, examined 41 overweight children under confinement throughout March and April in Verona, Italy.

Compared to behaviors recorded a year prior, the children ate an additional meal per day; slept an extra half hour per day; added nearly five hours per day in front of phone, computer and television screens; and dramatically increased their consumption of red meat, sugary drinks and junk foods.

buffalo.edu