The health of young people is no longer better in cities than in the rural world

The advantages of health mainly related to the growth and development that the children had. youths who lived in the cities with respect to those of the areas rural they have faded in recent decades in most developed countries, and these “urban” advantages persist only in parts of Africa and Asia.

This is one of the main conclusions of a macro-study led by Imperial College London and published today in the journal Nature, in which nearly 1,500 researchers from around the world have participated who have analyzed the data corresponding to more than seventy million children. and young.

The researchers have verified that the “urban” advantages have been amplified in many regions of Africa and Asia, and they have stressed in their publication that the conclusions they have obtained can help guide public policies and programs designed to improve the results of growth and development of populations.

This optimal growth and development during childhood and adolescence are crucial for health and well-being throughout life, have stressed the researchers, who have influenced the incidence of nutrition and the living environment at home on this growth. in the community and at school.

The researcher Esther López-García, professor of Epidemiology at the Autonomous University of Madrid and attached to the Center for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health Network who has participated in the study, highlights how the health of children and young people has improved who live in rural areas in many countries, and has ensured that this is due to improvements in nutrition -with food assistance programs in schools or help to buy food- and in access to education and health care .

The researchers who have participated in the study collected height and weight data of 71 million young people – from 5 to 19 years old – from all over the world, who lived in urban areas and in rural areas between the years 1990 and 2020.

They verified that in 1990 young people in cities were taller than those who lived in rural areas in almost all countries, but also that in 2020 this difference has narrowed, and even that in some of the richest Western countries, such as the United Kingdom, United States or France, that “advantage” now corresponds to adolescents in rural areas.

The exception has been found in most of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries of the Pacific, South Asia and the Middle East, when verifying that in these regions children in rural areas had not increased their height compared to those of the cities, but vice versa.

Researchers have underscored the importance of knowing and understanding growth and development trajectories in children and adolescents to guide efforts to improve health at these ages, and have warned that this is “particularly relevant” Due to the increase in poverty and the cost of food, influenced by the pandemic due to covid and the war in Ukraine.

In general terms, researchers have also found that the body mass index (BMI) has increased more among children in cities than among those in rural areas, but also that BMI has increased in virtually all high-income countries ( including Denmark, Spain or Italy) both among urban and rural populations.

Researcher Esther López García has specified that weight gain in children and adolescents is associated with obesity in adulthood, with the consequent deterioration of general health.

And he has ensured that this increase in BMI observed in developed countries responds to a deterioration in dietary habits, mainly in the family environment, but also to an increase in sedentary lifestyles in this population (use of screens versus physical exercise).

Source: EFE