Kids with delays at higher risk for obesity

Young children with developmental disorders, including autism, are at substantially greater risk of being overweight or obese than the general population of children the same ages, according to a new study from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University, and five other research centres.

The study included nearly

2,500 children between 2 and 5 years old — an age group that can present a valuable window of opportunity for early obesity prevention. The research findings were published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

The report’s authors say it is the first large study to show that young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and youngsters with other developmental delays or disorders are all at significant risk of becoming overweight or obese.

Of the children with autism, those with more severe symptoms and higher levels of impairment were shown to be at the highest risk of developing obesity by age 5.

“These findings make it clear that monitoring these children for excess weight gain at an early age is critical, and that prevention efforts should be expanded to include not just children with ASD, but those with other developmental diagnoses as well,” said Susan E. Levy, lead study author and medical director of the Center for Autism Research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The study’s results can help inform parents and health providers about the potential health risks these children face and take the necessary steps to avoid those pitfalls and make healthier choices, Levy said.

The research was part of the ongoing Study to Explore Early Development, a multi-site, federally funded project. The participants in this study included 668 children with ASD, 914 with developmental delays or disorders, and 884 children from the general population. They hailed from Pennsylvania, California, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland and North Carolina.

The study found that children with autism were 57 per cent more likely to be overweight or obese than the general population, while youngsters with severe ASD symptoms were 70 per cent more likely than their neurotypical peers to have excessive weight.

The children in the study who had other developmental delays or disorders were 38 per cent more likely to have weight problems. That included numerous conditions, such as speech and attention delays and Down syndrome, among others.

“We need more research to understand why these children are more likely to develop obesity, and which children are at the highest risk,” Levy said.

Identifying how these children individually developed weight problems was not part of the study’s scope.

However, it is known that some medical conditions are relatively common among children with autism, and they may have a role in weight gain, according to the study’s authors. Those include endocrine disorders, genetic disorders, gastrointestinal problems, rigid food choices, medication-related side-effects, and sleep disturbances.

The authors also noted that the children with autism and other developmental disorders also had higher levels of other issues, including motor and speech delays and behavioural problems that can affect children socially and recreationally.

In this study, nearly 20 per cent of even the general-population children were overweight or obese. Close to 28 per cent of the children with autism and 25 per cent of those with development delays met the criteria to be classified as overweight or obese.