Obesity prevalence in two national cohorts of children with disabilities: Patterns over time and by disability subgroups.

BACKGROUND

Obesity in the United States disproportionately affects children with disabilities, yet little is known about how their obesity rates change over time or differ across disability subgroups.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined changes in obesity rates in two nationally representative cohorts of children from kindergarten to grade five. Obesity rates were further disaggregated for four less examined disability subgroups: speech or language impairment (SLI), specific learning disability (SLD), intellectual disability (ID), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

METHODS

Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K: 1999 and ECLS-K: 2011) on two cohorts of children (approximately N = 9800 and N = 8500) were analyzed using logistic regression.

RESULTS

In both cohorts, obesity among children with disabilities increased from kindergarten (16-18 %) to grade five (26-31 %), at which point their rates were nearly 4-7 percentage points higher than children without disabilities. Obesity rates and grade-level trends were similar by disability subgroups in both cohorts.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results underscore the importance of tracking dietary, behavioral, and physical activity changes in children with disabilities that may increase or mitigate their risks of obesity. Targeted obesity prevention efforts should also extend to children in the less severe SLI and SLD categories.