The overweight: obesity and plasma lipids in adults with intellectual disability and mental illness.
Obesity hits four in ten adults with ID plus mental illness, especially males with mild ID and high triglycerides.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team looked at adults who have both intellectual disability and mental illness.
They ran one-time blood draws and weight checks.
Then they used math to see what best predicts a high body-mass index.
What they found
Four out of ten adults were obese.
Males with mild ID and high triglycerides were the most likely to be heavy.
Psychiatric drugs did not change lipid levels in this group.
How this fits with other research
Jin et al. (2020) asked the same adults how healthy they feel. They learned that extra weight, not ID severity, drives poor self-rated health.
Murthy et al. (2021) tracked 1,618 adults for five years. Obesity and diabetes predicted new high-cholesterol reports, backing the lipid link.
Pan et al. (2016) saw 35 % obesity in Taiwanese students with ID. The numbers look close to the 41 % here, but kids without mental illness were studied, so the groups differ.
Why it matters
You can’t fix genes, but you can flag the red flags. Put males with mild ID and high triglycerides on your watch list. Push for lipid panels at intake, and pair exercise goals with psychiatric care. Small diet moves now may prevent bigger metabolic trouble later.
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Add triglyceride and BMI columns to your monthly data sheet and review them first.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Previous studies in adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) have reported a higher prevalence of obesity than in the general population, and a trend to an increase in the prevalence of excess weight. However, little information is available on body weight status and lipids levels of adults with ID and co-existing mental illness. The aim of this study was to address this information gap, by conducting a stepwise multiple regression analysis to predict BMI, thereby allowing the investigation of (semi-)partial correlations, which assess the extent to which a particular predictor variable is associated with BMI over and above the other predictors. METHODS: A study of the patients with ID and psychiatric illness registered in the service. Collected data included body mass index (BMI), age, gender, the presence of additional physical conditions, residential status, mental illness and use the psychotropic medication. We analysed the lipid profile including serum cholesterol together with low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), triglycerides and the serum cholesterol/HDL ratio. Data for these variables were entered into a stepwise multiple linear regression to predict BMI. RESULTS: 28% of the participants were overweight and 41% obese. Most of the obese patients were men with mild ID (P = 0.039). Level of ID (P = 0.003), gender (P = 0.001) and serum triglycerides (P = 0.026) had significant predictive value in the regression model. There were no significant differences in either the mean serum cholesterol levels or the mean triglyceride levels between those taking and those not taking first-generation antipsychotics, second-generation antipsychotics or anti-epileptic medication. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of obesity in our sample was higher than in previous studies. The most predictive combination of predictors to predict BMI was ID level, gender and serum triglyceride levels. Serum triglyceride and cholesterol levels did not appear to be unduly affected by first- or second-generation antipsychotic medication or by antiepileptic medication.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2012 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2011.01468.x