Correlation between BMI and Waist Circumference in a Sample of Children, Adolescents and Adults with Disabilities in Temuco - Chile
Correlation between BMI and Waist Circumference in a Sample of Children, Adolescents and Adults with Disabilities in Temuco - Chile
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Ojeda Nahuelcura, Rodrigo
Cresp Barría, Mauricio
Cresp Barría, Mauricio
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Abstract
Obesity is one of the most important public health issues and its early detection facilitates the implementation of preventive strategies. According to the World Health Organization, the Body Mass Index (BMI) is a valid tool for measuring the nutritional state of the population; however, high performance specialists do not share this assertion. The focus of this study is to correlate BM I with waist circumference (WC). The latter is an indicator that provides a more accurate prediction of the central or abdominal obesity. The second objective of this research is to describe the prevalence of overweight and obesity in people with disabilities. A number of 188 children, adolescents and young adults of both sexes were assessed, 123 men (65.4%) and 65 women (34.6%) between the ages of three and twenty-five. All of them were students who attended special schools in Temuco city. BMI and the WC data were gathered using the method described by WHO's; therefore, the assessment and classification were carried out according to the WHO's cutoff points. There is a high degree of correlation between BMI and WC (0.846). A 49% of the sample was either overweight or obese. A 43.9% of men and 58.4% of women were either obese or overweight. As for waist circumference, 54.3% of the sample presented a relative risk. In men, 46.3% and a 69.2% in women presented a relative risk. The 71.88% of people with Down syndrome were overweight or obese, followed by people with intellectual disabilities and PDD with a 50% and 46%, respectively. The higher relative risk, according to waist circumference, was in people with intellectual disabilities with a 58.6%, followed by people with Down syndrome 56.3%.