Abstract

BERTAPELLI, Fabio; GORLA, José Irineu; SILVA, Fábia Freire da  and  COSTA, Leonardo Trevisan. Prevalence of obesity and the body fat topography in children and teenagers with down syndrome. Rev. bras. crescimento desenvolv. hum. [online]. 2013, vol.23, n.1, pp.65-70. ISSN 0104-1282.

OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the prevalence of obesity and the body fat topography in children and adolescents from both sexes aged 6 to 19 years old with Down syndrome, residents in the city of Campinas, São Paulo. METHODS: there were nine anthropometric measurements taken, including weight, height, and tricipital, bicipital, subscapular, suprailiac, abdominal, thigh, and calf skin folds. The fat percentage was determined by employing the prediction equations from Slaughter et al. Statistical analysis was performed using the computer package R Commander 1.6-3, with the descriptive statistics (median and 25th and 75th percentiles), the Mann-Whitney test, and the t-test for comparison between age groups, at the 5% (p 0.05) level. RESULTS: most subjects had excess body fat, with the higher values being found among the females. The obesity was not a prominent characteristic among the boys, unlike the other age groups who had manifestations of elevated obesity. Regarding the body fat topography, most showed higher concentration of fat in the thigh, and smaller deposits in the biceps region. In the transition from childhood to adolescence, it was verifiable that boys and young men differ in the amounts of adipose tissue. However, no significant differences were observed among the girls, and the young women. CONCLUSION: the assessment of the prevalence of obesity and subcutaneous fat topography are important resources to support researchers, and practitioners who work directly on improving the quality of life of children and adolescents with Down syndrome.

Keywords : down syndrome; body composition; obesity; body fat distribution.

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