Obesity in adults with Down syndrome: a case-control study.
Obesity hits only women with Down syndrome harder than other adults with ID—screen BMI every visit and launch fun, frequent exercise.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Doctors compared the adults with Down syndrome to the adults with other intellectual disabilities. They matched each pair by age, sex, and living situation.
Staff measured height and weight in clinics. They used BMI to label people as obese or overweight.
What they found
Women with Down syndrome were twice as likely to be obese as women with other ID. Men with Down syndrome were no heavier than other men.
The gap showed up only in the obesity range, not just overweight.
How this fits with other research
Jackson et al. (2025) followed the same pattern. Danish women with ID had double the type-2-diabetes risk, again with no extra risk for men. Both studies say the same thing: check women with ID early for metabolic problems.
Sosnowski et al. (2022) gives a fix. Six months of basketball, three nights a week, cut body fat in adults with Down syndrome. The 2005 paper flags the risk; the 2022 paper shows the program that lowers it.
Spanoudis et al. (2011) looked at both obesity and depression in Down syndrome. Their review folds the 2005 numbers into a bigger picture: watch weight and mood together in the same clinic visit.
Why it matters
If you serve adults with Down syndrome, weigh the women at every visit and plot BMI on a growth grid. Start basketball, walking clubs, or dance classes that run at least three times a week. Track attendance and weight together; the 2022 trial shows big pay-offs when sessions hit 24 weeks. Share the chart with caregivers so they see progress and keep the person engaged.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Obesity has a negative impact upon mortality and morbidity. Studies report that obesity is more prevalent in individuals with Down syndrome than individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) not associated with Down syndrome. However, there have been no studies using a methodology of matched comparison groups and findings from previous studies are contradictory. METHODS: A detailed method was used to identify all adults with ID in Leicestershire. Individuals were invited to participate in a medical examination - that included measurement of their height and weight, from which body mass index (BMI) was calculated. For each person with Down syndrome, an individual matched for gender, age and accommodation type was identified, from the Leicestershire ID database. RESULTS: The data for 247 matched pairs is reported. Women with Down syndrome had lower mean height and weight, but greater mean BMI than the matched pairs. Men with Down syndrome had a lower mean height and weight but there was no statistical difference in BMI compared to the matched pairs. Using World Health Organization categories of BMI, women with Down syndrome were more likely to be overweight or obese than their matched pairs (odds ratio = 2.17). Men with Down syndrome were more likely to be in the overweight category than their matched pairs but were less likely to be obese (odds ratio = 0.85). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that, compared to a matched sample, there is a greater prevalence of obesity amongst women with Down syndrome but not men. As the impact on the health of people with Down syndrome of being overweight or obese is uncertain, this is an area that requires further study.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2005 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2004.00616.x