Body mass index among Special Olympics athletes from Muslim majority countries: Differences in gender and adult status.
Special Olympics women from Muslim countries carry rising BMI into adulthood, doubling their later diabetes risk.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team weighed and measured 1,157 Special Olympics athletes from 12 Muslim-majority countries.
They split the group by sex and adult status, then compared body-mass-index scores.
All data came from routine Healthy Athletes screenings, so no extra tests were needed.
What they found
Women had higher BMI than men at every age.
Men’s BMI dropped after they reached adulthood, but women’s kept climbing.
The pattern was strongest in athletes from Gulf states.
How this fits with other research
Jackson et al. (2025) followed Danish adults with ID for 15 years and found women developed type-2 diabetes at twice the rate of men, matching the rising BMI seen here.
MacRae et al. (2015) warned that diabetes screening is spotty in ID services; this BMI gap shows why women need priority screening.
Nevin et al. (2005) saw the same sex split in Down syndrome: women more obese, men flat. The new data say the trend holds across ID diagnoses and cultures.
Why it matters
If you coach or care for adults with ID, check BMI yearly.
Start diabetes screening earlier for women, especially after 25.
A simple diet-and-exercise group run through Special Olympics clinics can target the highest-risk athletes first.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Obesity is higher in adults with intellectual disability than in the general population and for women more than men. Past research however has specifically focused on individuals with intellectual disability in the United States and the United Kingdom with little attention on individuals with intellectual disability in Muslim majority countries. METHOD: The present study examined differences in body mass index (BMI) among 1314 men and women Special Olympics athletes from 32 Muslim majority countries in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011. Athletes' gender, adult status (minor or adult) and the interaction between gender and adult status were used to predict increases in BMI with a hierarchical linear regression, where athletes were nested within country controlling for athletes' nation's Gross-domestic product. RESULTS: Being female significantly predicted an increase in obesity while adulthood predicted a decrease in BMI. The interaction between gender and adulthood was also significant, however, indicating that obesity decreases with adulthood only for men. For women, BMI continues to increase with age. CONCLUSIONS: This study extends our knowledge on one important indicator of health status for individuals with intellectual disability in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. The results may be used to inform health care practices with individuals with intellectual disabilities and stimulate future research to understand contextual factors contributing to health disparities.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2016 · doi:10.1111/jir.12252