Associations of physical activity with fatness and fitness in adolescents with Down syndrome: The UP&DOWN study.
Hard, breathy play drives teen fitness in Down syndrome, yet body fat stays stubbornly unlinked.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Izquierdo-Gomez et al. (2015) tracked teens with Down syndrome in Spain.
They used waist-worn accelerometers for seven days.
The team asked: does how hard kids move link to body fat or to fitness scores?
What they found
Vigorous activity tied strongly to better fitness.
Surprise: activity had no link to fatness in this group.
Meeting light or moderate goals was not enough—only hard play mattered.
How this fits with other research
Bertapelli et al. (2016) reviewed 40 papers and saw the same gap: exercise alone rarely trims weight in Down syndrome youth.
Pitchford et al. (2019) also struck out—cortisol levels did not track with fatness, backing the idea that usual fat signals work differently here.
Boer (2024) followed adults for 12 years and watched balance, strength, and heart fitness drop fast, so the teen fitness boost seen here may fade without upkeep.
Together the papers say: move hard for fitness now, but plan extra supports if weight loss is the goal.
Why it matters
When you write a PE goal, target vigorous games—soccer tags, dance-offs, or quick shuttle runs.
Do not rely on step counts or light activity to guard against weight gain; add diet or family-level changes if BMI is a concern.
Track fitness tests yearly, because the Down syndrome population loses function faster once they hit adulthood.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The aim of the present study was to examine the associations of objectively measured physical activity (PA) with several markers of fatness and fitness in a relatively large sample of adolescents with Down syndrome (DS). This study comprised a total of 100 adolescents with DS (37 females) aged 11-20 years-old, and a sex-matched sample of 100 adolescents without disabilities, participating in the UP&DOWN study. The ALPHA health-related fitness test battery for adolescents was used to assess fatness and fitness. PA was measured by accelerometry. Adolescents with DS had higher fatness and significantly lower fitness levels in all variables measured than adolescents without DS (all p<0.05). Moderate-to-large effects were observed in fatness variables (d=0.65-1.42), but particularly large values were found in fitness variables (d=2.05-2.43). In addition, PA levels was not associated with fatness variables, whereas total PA and vigorous PA were associated with all fitness variables (p<0.05), and moderate-vigorous PA (MVPA) was associated with muscular fitness (p<0.05), after adjusting for potential confounders. Further analysis revealed that there were differences in fitness by tertiles of vigorous PA between the lowest and the highest groups in all fitness variables (all p<0.05). However, no significant differences were found in fitness by tertiles of MVPA according with PA guidelines (≥60min in MVPA). Our findings indicate that PA levels are not associated with fatness variables, whereas high PA levels, in particular vigorous PA, are positively associated with high fitness in adolescents with DS.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2015 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.10.022