The WHO Regional Office for Europe established the WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) in 2007 in response to the need for standardized surveillance data on the prevalence of overweight and obesity among school-aged children. The availability of such information is essential to develop effective policies and strategies to tackle childhood obesity in the WHO European Region. The sixth data collection round of COSI involves 37 Member States and data collection is still ongoing in some of these.
This report presents the results from the 13 States that collected information during the 2021–2022 school year on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s health, and four that collected information during the 2022–2023 school year. The findings of this research on the pandemic’s consequences are extremely important for participating Member States to help prepare for the future.