Does coronavirus disease 2019 affect body mass index of children and adolescents who visited a growth clinic in South Korea?: a single-center study.

Purpose: This study investigated the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on body mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents.

Methods: From May to July 2020, the obesity rate of children and adolescents was compared retrospectively to the corresponding rate in the same period in 2019. The change in height, weight, and BMI of the girls who received a gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) for precocious puberty (n=53) and the controls (n=31) who visited a growth clinic for early breast budding but were not treated with GnRHa in the first half of 2020 were compared to the corresponding change in the first half of 2019 using a paired t-test.