The Effect of Age on the Prevalence of Obesity among US Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Background: We sought to assess the association between age and the prevalence of obesity among children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children's Health.Methods: Analyses were restricted to 43,777 children, ages 10-17, with valid measures of parent-reported weight, height, and ASD status. Exploratory analyses describe the impact of sex, race/ethnicity, and household income on the relationship between age and obesity in ASD.Results: Although the overall prevalence of obesity among children with ASD was significantly ( p < 0.001) higher than among children without ASD (23.1% vs. 14.1%, 95% confidence interval for difference 3.6 to 14.4), child age significantly ( p = 0.035) modified this difference. In a multivariable logistic regression analysis, adjusted for sex, race/ethnicity, and household income, the odds of obesity among children with ASD compared with children without ASD increased monotonically from ages 10 to 17 years. This pattern arose due to a consistently high prevalence of obesity among children with ASD and a decline in prevalence with advancing age among children without ASD. These findings were replicated using a propensity score analysis. Exploratory analyses suggested that the age-related change in obesity disparity between children with and without ASD may be further modified by sex, race/ethnicity, and household income.Conclusions: The patterns of prevalence observed with increasing age among children with and without ASD were unexpected. A better understanding of the etiological and maintenance factors for obesity in youth with ASD is needed to develop interventions tailored to the specific needs of these children.

Age-Period-Cohort Analysis of Obesity and Overweight in Iranian Children and Adolescents

“…This finding was in agreement with the results of the study conducted by Kelishadi et al, reporting a negative correlation between age and prevalence of overweight and obesity ( 28 ). It was also quite compatible with the reports from the United States indicating a decline in the prevalence of overweight and obesity with advancing age in healthy children ( 31 ). However, the exact reason for this correlation is not identified yet.…”

Prevalence and factors associated with overweight and obesity among Spanish students attending special education schools

“…High rates of overweight/obesity in populations have also been reported in children, adolescents (Bertapelli, Pitetti, Agiovlasitis, & Guerra‐Junior, ; Samarkandy, Mohamed, & Al‐Hamdan, ) and young adults (Jankowicz‐Szymanska, Mikolajczyk, & Wojtanowski, ) with Down syndrome (DS) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Broder‐Fingert, Brazauskas, Lindgren, Iannuzzi, & Cleave, ; Must et al, ). However, only 32.7% of the participants in this study had either DS or ASD.…”

Physical Activity Levels, Frequency, and Type Among Adolescents with and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…The growing interest in the physical activity habits of youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be attributed, in part, to the increasing prevalence of ASD, the high rates of overweight and obesity (Broder-Fingert, Brazauskas, Lindgren, Iannuzzi, & Van Cleave, 2014; Curtin, Anderson, Must, & Bandini, 2010; Egan, Dreyer, Odar, Beckwith, & Garrison, 2013; Hill, Zuckerman & Fombonne, 2015; Must et al, 2016), and low levels of health-related fitness in this population (Borremans, Rintala, & McCubbin, 2010; Kern et al, 2013; Pan et al 2016; Tyler, MacDonald, & Menear, 2014). The most current evidence indicates that children and adolescents with ASD are not sufficiently active and fall short of meeting the Center for Disease Control's Physical Activity Guidelines (Bandini et al, 2013; Obrusnikova & Cavalier, 2011; Memari et al., 2015; McDonald, Esposito & Ulrich, 2011).…”