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The PESCA program is an intervention program combining school intervention with clinical pediatric practice. Each subject has a personalized diagnosis and treatment. The program is financed by combining its own resources (personnel) with the participation of the families and the schools.

Analysis of institutional authors

Zarate-Osuna, FCorresponding AuthorQuesada-Gonzalez, CAuthorZapico, A GAuthorGonzalez-Gross, MCorresponding Author

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December 24, 2024
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Overweight Prevalence Changes Before and After COVID-19 in Spain: The PESCA Program Longitudinal Outcomes 2018-2021

Publicated to:Nutrients. 16 (23): 3993- - 2024-12-01 16(23), DOI: 10.3390/nu16233993

Authors: Zarate-Osuna, F; Quesada-Gonzalez, C; Zapico, A G; Gonzalez-Gross, M

Affiliations

Inst Hlth Carlos III, Ctr Invest Biomed Red Fisiopatol Obesidad & Nutr C, Madrid 28029, Spain - Author
Quironsalud Sur Hosp, Pediat Dept, Alcorcon 28922, Spain - Author
Quironsalud Toledo Hosp, Pediat Dept, Toledo 45001, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Dept Appl Math Informat & Commun Technol, Madrid 28040, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Fac Ciencias Act Fis & Deporte INEF, Dept Hlth & Human Performance, ImFINE Res Grp, Madrid 28040, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Background: Overweight prevalence in Spain reached critical levels before the COVID-19 pandemic, which likely exacerbated this issue. The PESCA (Programa Escolar de Salud Cardio-vascular) program is a multicomponent school-based intervention, launched in 2018 with the aim of tackling this health problem and reducing overweight rates in youth. Objectives: (1) To analyze the efficacy of the PESCA program intervention on body composition, overweight prevalence, physical activity (PA)/sport practice, resting time, and screentime before COVID-19 and (2) to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 and the associated lockdown measures on these parameters in the studied sample. Methods: This longitudinal study included 207 children and adolescents from schools in Madrid (aged 2.82 to 15.84 years; 44.4% girls), with measurements taken at three time points: two before COVID-19 and one after its onset. Overweight prevalence, body fat percentage diagnosis, physical activity, resting time, and screentime were assessed. Cochran's Q test and repeated-measures ANOVA were used to compare outcomes across the three assessment time points. Results: Overweight prevalence remained stable among children in the PESCA program before COVID-19 (17.87% to 19.81%). However, a significant increase was observed from point 2 to point 3, post-COVID-19 onset (19.81% to 26.57%). Similarly, healthy body composition significantly deteriorated from 63.16% at point 2 to 52.48% at point 3. PA/sport practice prevalence significantly increased until COVID-19 onset (80.19% to 91.22%) but declined thereafter (91.22% to 79.10% from point 2 to point 3). Although the differences were small, resting time significantly decreased post-COVID-19 onset (from 10.18 h at point 2 to 9.96 h at point 3), with no changes in the first period. Non-academic screentime showed a similar pattern: stable before COVID-19 and significantly increased after its onset (1.61 h at point 1; 1.70 h at point 2; 2.29 h at point 3). Conclusions: The PESCA program positively impacted PA/sport practice prevalence and may have provided some protection against overweight and related variables during the pre-COVID period. However, health authorities' restrictions and lockdown policies during COVID-19 negatively affected the health and lifestyle variables studied, offsetting previous improvements.

Keywords

AdolescentBody compositionChildChild, preschoolChildhoodCovid-19Covid-19 impactExerciseFemaleHumansIntervention prograIntervention programLongitudinal studiesMaleObesitOverweightPediatric obesityPhysical activityPrevalenceSars-cov-2SchoolSchool health servicesScreen timeSpain

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Nutrients due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2024 there are still no calculated indicators, but in 2023, it was in position 17/112, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Nutrition & Dietetics.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2025-08-07:

  • Scopus: 1

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-08-07:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 13.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 15 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 1.35.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 2 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://oa.upm.es/88885/

As a result of the publication of the work in the institutional repository, statistical usage data has been obtained that reflects its impact. In terms of dissemination, we can state that, as of

  • Views: 29
  • Downloads: 9

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (ZÁRATE OSUNA, FERNANDO) and Last Author (GONZALEZ GROSS, MARIA MARCELA).

the authors responsible for correspondence tasks have been ZÁRATE OSUNA, FERNANDO and GONZALEZ GROSS, MARIA MARCELA.