Another one of Obesity:Poor Grades among Girls

Childhood obesity has caught all the limelight across the world, especially in the UK and US. Apart from the many ill consequences of obesity, researchers from the Universities of Dundee, Georgia, Strathclyde and Bristol now say that obesity not only affects a child’s overall health, it also can lead to poorer performance at school for teenage girls. The link was seen to be less apparent in boys.

The study’s lead author, John Reilly, who is also a specialist in the prevention of childhood obesity at the University of Strathclyde said that the rate of childhood obesity in the UK has been on a rise since the 1990s. At least a quarter of the children in the UK today are obese even before they reach 12 years of age.

The study analysed data from 6, 000 adolescent students in the UK which compared their body mass index from the time they were 11 years old till they were 16with their academic performance during this time. The researchers said that 71 percent of the students were of a healthy weight in the beginning, and about 15 percent were obese. The researchers concluded by saying that there are a lot of other factors as well that influence weight changes.

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