This complementary report to Study Studies 2022 Analyzes The impact of the socio -economic level at the lifestyle of children and young people in Spain. Children and young people who grow in more disadvantaged environments perform 23 minutes less in physical activity, devote up to 70 minutes to the use of screens during the week and to a lesser extent with sleep recommendations, especially during the week (14.7 % less).
They also present A lower adhesion to the Mediterranean diet, with a difference of up to 1 point in the KidMed Index and 11.5 % more cases with low adhesion. Although psychological discomfort affects more than 30 % of minors, significant differences are hardly observed according to a socio -economic level.
The study confirms that Excessive weight among young people remains a public health problem in Spain. 33.4 % of children and adolescents between 8 and 16 are overweight or obesity, and 20.4 % have obsitas. Although a slight stabilization has been detected in the figures since 2019, significant inequalities remain for gender, age and socio -economic level.
Sedentary life young
While they grow, the lifestyle of girls, boys and young people That Gasol Foundation started to continue between 8 and 16 years between 2019 and 2020 deteriorated and did this in a worrying dimension. Every time The screens spend more hours earlier, they practice less, they eat and feel worse.
These are some of the conclusions of the new Study longitudinal steps 2022-2025who presented today in Barcelona through a Pau Gasol press conference, legend of the NBA and president of this foundation – founded in 2013 with his brother Marc To combat obesity in children –In the company of the Minister of Health, Mónica García. On average, this study followed 701 members of that original cohort of 3 800 participants from the two previous editions for 3 and a half years (2019-2020 and 2022-2023), who are between 10 and 22 years old today.
At that time, lExposure to electronic device screens increased by 11.3 hours extra per week, a figure equal to 25 days full per year. The use of screens during childhood reveals, among other things, more publicity of unhealthy products and promotes its consumption, because an earlier study of Gasol Foundation already warns in 2023.
Young people feed worse and do fewer physical exercises than a few years ago
Among the other findings of the new work – the first in Spain to follow the same cohort of Girls, boys and young adolescents to analyze how their life habits and their weight condition evolve-, emphasizes an average descent of 18 minutes a day in practice of moderate or powerful physical activity, a decrease of almost 11 percentage points in the high adhesion to the Mediterranean diet and a lower sleep quality, especially during the weekend.
According to Sinc Santi F. Gómez, worldwide director research and programs of Gasol Foundation, “it is normal that there is a certain deterioration of the practice of physical activity during growth or increases the use of screens because they start using the mobile phone or computer, But the size of that deterioration is alarming“
One of the most striking data is the increase in Emotional discomfortSince 35.6 % of the population would be concerned between 2022 and 2025, feel sad or unhappy, compared to 18.3 % registered at the start of the study (2019-2020), which represents almost twice the increase in symptoms of psychological suffering. “In the future, these young people run the risk of mental health problems”Warns Gómez.
Bad habits since childhood
The analysis also focuses on the Coefficient waist/size (C/T), an indicator of cardiometabolic risk based on the ratio between the circumference of the waist and the height. The minors who have worsened this parameter in the order, already showed poorer health habits in the Young: They did less sports, used more screens, slept less, ate worse and reported more emotional discomfort.
It should be noted that participants who have been followed in general over time, a Socio -economic level higher than the average of the Spanish young population. This is because in a situation of greater vulnerability, families tend to change more often from home or telephone number, which makes it difficult to order, explains Gómez, who believes that the results can be the real size of the detected problems.
“This should call us action to unite troops between civil society, the private sector and the entities of governments, To promote very determined public policy that changes the context in which children grow”, Points to the expert.
The involvement of society is crucial
“It is a team effort that requires a involvement of the entire society,” said Pau Gasol during the presentation of the study, in which he was standing “to overcome individualistic and stigmatizing approaches of obesity in children,” that he defined as a problem with public roots. “It’s essential Transform the environments in which young people grow to facilitate healthy elections And stop this trend, “he emphasized.
Gasol also claimed the absorption of the C/T -Coefficient as a complementary indicator for the BMI in the clinical practice of the pediatric Epidemiological surveillance, as well as the regulation of excessive use of children during childhood.
For his part, the Minister of Health, Mónica GarcíaHe thanked the athlete for his involvement in ‘a transforming project that places children’s health in the center“Garcia appealed to the action from science and recalled that” the tip of the iceberg is obesity, but below are all social inequalities and inequalities of the most vulnerable families, who cannot spend the necessary time on the most important time. “
The minister referred to the “integral approach” of the general protocol of action for the development of the national strategic plan for the reduction of the obesity of children (Penroi), signed between his ministry and the Gasol Foundation in February, which marks a route map with 200 Measures aimed at guaranteeing healthy growth environments, regardless of the social or territorial origin of childhood. Ecotics.com