Publication details
BMI Indicators in Children with Intellectual Disabilities
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Studia Sportiva |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | https://journals.muni.cz/studiasportiva/article/view/11486 |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/StS2019-1-9 |
| Keywords | children with intellectual disabilities; special elementary school; the BMI indicator; levels of intellectual disabilities; obesity |
| Description | Currently, obesity in people with intellectual disabilities, whose daily lives are to a certain degree affected by their impairment, is increasingly becoming the focal point of attention. However, there is a lack of scientific data for children with intellectual disabilities. The aim of this research is to determine whether children with intellectual disabilities are prone to obesity, whether obesity is gender- and age-specific, what is the distribution of intellectual disabilities in boys and girls and whether any level of intellectual disability shows a higher proclivity to obesity. The method employed was comparative and qualitative research approached deductively. For the collection of BMI indicators, InBody analyser was used to measure the data of 49 children attending two special needs primary schools. The findings of the research show that the BMI values of more than a half of children with intellectual disabilities in all assessed groups is within norm. Boys are estimated to have a lower BMI in middle adolescence than in early adolescence and school age. Girls are highly likely to have a higher BMI in late adolescence than in middle and early adolescence. In boys, obesity is associated with early adolescence and mild to moderate level of intellectual disability, whereas in girls with middle adolescence and mild level of intellectual disability. |