BMI Indicators in Children with Intellectual Disabilities

KRÁLÍKOVÁ, Jitka and Hana VÁLKOVÁ. BMI Indicators in Children with Intellectual Disabilities. Studia Sportiva. Masarykova univerzita, 2019, vol. 13, No 1, p. 85-97. ISSN 1802-7679. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.5817/StS2019-1-9.

Basic information

• Original name: BMI Indicators in Children with Intellectual Disabilities
• Name in Czech: Ukazatelé BMI u dětí s mentálním postižením
• Authors: KRÁLÍKOVÁ, Jitka (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution) and Hana VÁLKOVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: Studia Sportiva, Masarykova univerzita, 2019, 1802-7679.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Article in a journal
• Field of Study: 50302 Education, special
• Country of publisher: Czech Republic
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14510/19:00110296
• Organization unit: Faculty of Sports Studies
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/StS2019-1-9
• Keywords in English: children with intellectual disabilities; special elementary school; the BMI indicator; levels of intellectual disabilities; obesity
• Tags: rivok
• Tags: Reviewed

Abstract

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.