Overweight children usually miss more classes compared to their normal weight peers, according to American scientists. This may be due to the stigma and bullying that comes along for an overweight child, not necessary because of his or her condition, researchers said.

Scientist at the Temple University in Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania studied over 1000 children attending Pennsylvania schools. The results showed that overweight children had a higher risk to miss school than normal weight colleagues.

In the past thirty-five years, childhood obesity has tripled and now, over fifteen percent of children between six and nineteen years old are overweight. Researchers noticed that the body mass index (BMI) is a strong factor that may influence school absenteeism along with age, gender, socioeconomic status, and race.

Other studies suggested that overweight children suffer from medical and psychological effects related to obesity and are more likely to skip school, use drugs, do less well academically, and get pregnant sooner.

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