Study To Examine Obesity In Youth And Young Adults With Disabilities

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Study To Examine Obesity In Youth And Young Adults With Disabilities

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/211667.php

While the nation's obesity epidemic is the target of many programs to combat it,

few such programs embrace an often-overlooked subgroup -- adolescents and young

adults with physical or cognitive disabilities.

" There's a higher rate of obesity in this population, " says Rimmer,

professor of disability and human development at the University of Illinois at

Chicago, and disability specialists need to know much more about the causes and

consequences of this significant health risk.

Rimmer is heading a study group to tackle those questions, funded by a

five-year, $2 million grant from the National Institute on Disability and

Rehabilitation Research.

" This is really the only study ever funded that begins to lay the foundation of

how obesity begins in a disabled population, when does it begin, how does it

progress and advance, and what are the anticipated consequences, " Rimmer said.

Data that have been collected by various groups will be analyzed in hopes of

gaining a clearer picture of the problem.

Rimmer's group will look at weight changes in youth with physical and cognitive

disabilities, and see if it gets worse or better as they transition into

adulthood. He hopes to tie those observations to predisposing factors and

correlating effects.

" Do they have more health conditions, more hospitalizations, greater levels of

social isolation, less employment? " Rimmer asks. " If we don't begin to

understand obesity and all the conditions associated with it at this earlier

stage of life, we could end up imposing not only a hardship on the caregiver,

but on the individuals themselves as they become adults and begin to live

independently. And on society as a whole, where the cost of healthcare is going

to be dramatically higher. "

Co-investigator Yolanda Suarez-Balacazar, professor and head of occupational

therapy at UIC, will address cultural dimensions to see what effect they may

have on obesity. She will also direct a team of experts that will develop

cultural adaptations for promoting healthier lifestyles among minority youth

with disabilities.

Rimmer and his colleagues have also assembled a panel of experts that will

develop recommendations on how to adapt existing programs and strategies using

federal community health grants in order to benefit younger persons with

cognitive and physical disabilities.

Nearly 50 disability and health organizations have signed on to assist with the

development of these physical, cognitive and policy adaptations.

" In the future, as funding agencies develop new grant announcements, they'll use

our expert-based consensus, adaptations and guidelines to require that people

with disabilities participate in these initiatives, " Rimmer said.

Source: University of Illinois at Chicago