Students stretch during a physical education class at Gwacheon High School in Gwacheon, south of Seoul, on June 3, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Various indices measuring the country’s overall levels of blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels in the liver among elementary, middle and high school students have worsened since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Tuesday.
Rep. Shin Hyun-young of the Democratic Party shared reports from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, which showed that 19.5 percent of elementary school students, 19.4 percent of middle school students and 23.6 percent of high school students were obese.
Compared to the pre-pandemic era of 2019, the obesity rate jumped by 4.5 percentage points among elementary school students, 3.9 percentage points among middle school students and 0.3 percentage points among high school students.
The average rate of high blood pressure among elementary, middle and high school students was 14.3 percent last year, up by 0.4 percentage points from 2019.
The rate jumped by 3 percentage points among 4th graders, and 2.5 percentage points among students in their first year of middle schools.
The proportion of those exposed to the risk of diabetes and fatty liver also rose significantly.
Blood tests done on students with obesity showed 32.6 percent of them had high levels of blood sugar, up by 11.4 percentage points from 2019.
At 58 percent, the majority of obese students had hypercholesterolemia, up by 8.4 percentage points from 2019, while 18.7 percent had high aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels, which was 5.2 percentage points higher than in 2019.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
