BETHESDA, Md. – Overweight children may miss more days from school than their classmates who are a normal weight.
According to a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University, childhood obesity is strongly linked to absenteeism, which could have negative long-term affects, such as drug use, AIDS, teen pregnancy and poor academic performance.
The researchers said the higher rate of absenteeism in overweight children could be due to the social stigma of being obese. Often, these children don’t want to come to school because they don’t want to be bullied. Researchers speculate that this leads to obese kids being absent from school 20 percent more than their normal weight peers.
Age, race, socioeconomic status and gender are other predictors of absenteeism. Childhood obesity, however, may be an even stronger predictor.
According to the Associated Press, the study didn’t examine the physical health issues associated with being overweight.
The report can be found in the August issue of Obesity.