The effect of the degree of disability on nutritional status and flat feet in adolescents with Down syndrome

Excessive weight and obesity are ranked among lifestyle diseases. In the case of weight gain, the effectiveness of therapy based on diet and physical activity depends considerably on patients themselves, but despite this the number of those who successfully manage to lose weight is still not satisfactory. Preventing or treating excessive weight gain in the intellectually disabled is extremely difficult since they have a higher risk for developing obesity. The below presented study assessed the effect of the degree of intellectual disability on nutritional status in adolescents with Down syndrome. It also focused on some correlations between the degree of disability and a selected constituent of the body posture, i.e. flat feet. A total of 54 males and 26 females with mild and moderate Down syndrome, aged 18.68 ± 1.73, residents of Special Needs Education Centre in Tarnów, Poland, participated in the study, in which body weight and height, BMI, fat tissue percentage and the longitudinal arch of the foot were measured. A total of 17.5% of individuals with mild and 50% of individuals with moderate ID were found overweight or obese. Weight gain more often occurred in females. It seemed that flat feet were affected to a greater extent by the participants' nutritional status than their degree of disability. The study found no unambiguous effect of the degree of disability on the nutritional status and flat feet in individuals with Down syndrome.