One in five students in elementary, middle, and high schools in Seoul were obese, and 30 percent of them were overweight in 2021, a government report showed.

Rep. Shin Hyun-young of the Democratic Party released the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education’s report on student health examination data between 2017 and 2021.

According to Shin, the report investigated obesity levels in 3,939 students at 31 elementary schools, 2,265 at 30 middle schools, and 2,786 at 40 high schools in Seoul.

The results showed that 19.5 percent of elementary schoolers, 19.4 percent of middle schoolers, and 23.6 percent of high schoolers were obese.

The obesity rate among elementary school students in Seoul kept increasing from 9.1 percent in 2017 to 10.2 percent in 2018 and 19.5 percent in 2021.

Compared to 2017, the obesity rate more than doubled in 2021. For two years after the outbreak of Covid-19, the rate went up by 4.5 percentage points.

The growth of obesity was particularly pronounced among those in higher grades in elementary schools. T

The proportion of obese children was similar between students in lower grades and those in higher grades until 2019.

In the wake of Covid-19, however, the obesity rate among first graders went up by 3.4 percentage points, while that among fourth graders rose by 6.8 percentage points.

The report showed that one in four first and one in three fourth-graders were either overweight or obese.

Shin said that reduced physical activity due to online classes, irregular lifestyle habits, and different diets other than school lunches must have affected children’s obesity.

The obesity rate among middle schoolers in Seoul went up from 13.5 percent in 2017 to 15.7 percent in 2018. But, then, the rate climbed quickly by 3.9 percentage points to 19.4 percent in 2021, compared to 2019.

The growth of the obesity rate in high schoolers was the slowest compared to that of elementary and middle schoolers. It inched up from 23.1 percent in 2017 to 23.6 percent in 2021.

However, the proportion of overweight high school students increased from 4.9 percent in 2019 to 8.7 percent in 2021.

“The increase of obese students due to online learning, minimization of physical activity, and irregular lifestyle during the Covid-19 pandemic is a serious social problem,” Shin said. “To break the vicious cycle of pediatric obesity leading to chronic diseases, the government should take measures to help students maintain a healthy lifestyle and increase physical activity.”