Body mass of mentally retarded children and young people

Teresa Pop
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Alicja Paluch
Julian Skrzypiec
Joanna Dudek
Instytut Fizjoterapii Wydziału Medycznego Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego, Rzeszów, Polska
Z Klinicznego Oddziału Rehabilitacji Szpitala Wojewódzkiego nr 2 w Rzeszowie
Institute of Physiotherapy, Department of Medicine, University of Rzeszow, Poland
Instytut Fizjoterapii Wydziału Medycznego Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego, Rzeszów, Polska

Abstract

Many researchers states that children with mental retardation of various degree because of bio-psychosocial connections, various reasons, symptoms, as well as because of dynamism and prognosis difficult to be foreseen, have greater predisposition to overweight and obesity than children without the diagnosed mental retardation. Aim of the elaboration is determination of the body mass of mentally retarded children and adolescent from Specjalny Ośrodek Szkolno-Wychowawczy (Special School-Education Centre) in Mrowla. Material and method. An examined group was constituted by the mentally retarded children and adolescent, with exclusion of persons with the Down’s syndrome. A control group was constituted by children and adolescent from the junior high school in Białobrzegi. Both groups included 30 persons each. In both groups the BMI index of the examined children, young people and their parents was calculated, dependence of the birth weight on the BMI index and dependence of the BMI index of the children and their parents was researched. Comparison of the examined group with the control group considering the BMI level, did not bring any statistically important differences. Statistically significant correlations were obtained between much lower birth weight in the researched group than in the control group, in a relatively inconsiderable influence of the body birth weight on BMI in later age and between a mother’s BMI and a child’s BMI in the control group. Observations do not explicitly indicate genetic conditions of obesity but underline a role of environmental factors and diet habits created from the earlier childhood.

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