Obesity in youth and adults with intellectual disability in Europe and Eurasia

Abstract

Background Information about obesity among people with intellectual disability comes mostly from small‐scale, national samples in high‐income countries. There are limited data from transnational studies. Method BMI scores had been obtained for over 25,000 youth and adults with intellectual disabilities drawn from 60 European and Eurasian countries. Their height and weight had been measured using standardized procedures when they attended Special Olympics Healthy Athletes events. Results Binary logistic regression identified higher levels of obesity for athletes living in high‐income countries, and for adult females, for those aged 30 years and over, and also for youth aged 8–13 years. Conclusions Participation in sports does not appear to have protected these athletes from obesity. Arguably, this remains the most pressing health issue for people with intellectual disability, particularly in Western Europe.

A scoping review of clusters of multiple long-term conditions in people with intellectual disabilities and factors impacting on outcomes for this patient group

“…Women are at greater risk than men (Reppermund et al, 2020) and risk increases with age (Hussain et al, 2020). Intellectual disability populations with obesity (Sadowsky et al, 2020) or polypharmacy use (Lim et al, 2021; McMahon et al, 2020) are at greater risk. Lack of face-to-face screenings or appointments have been raised as a concern in this population (Kinnear et al, 2018), which is an important consideration to take forward given the context of the pandemic which has become a threat and barrier to face to face healthcare services, in particular in the community (Flynn et al, 2021; Joy et al, 2020).…”

People with intellectual disability in Ireland are still dying young

“…Females with intellectual disability have a death rate that is over two‐thirds higher than for the general female population. To date, there seems to be little evidence of gender differences in relation to the risk of death due to specific causes commonly reported for people with intellectual disability (Robertson & Hatton, 2019 ), although lifestyle factors such as obesity and physical inactivity may be more prevalent among females (Sadowsky et al, 2019 ). Future analyses of deaths need to take account of possible confounding variables as happened in the present study as they may be more of a contributing factor to death rates than gender.…”

Estimation of body fat in children with intellectual disability: development and cross-validation of a simple anthropometric method

“…Obesity is a worldwide health epidemic for individuals with and without intellectual disability (ID). 1 , 2 , 3 Children with ID, however, are nearly two times more likely to be obese than children without ID. 4 , 5 , 6 Excessive weight increases the risk for secondary health conditions such as hyperlipidemia, diabetes, respiratory and sleeping disorders among children with ID.…”