Harry M. Voulgarakis, D. Bendell-Estroff, T. Field
{"title":"Prevalence of Obesity and Autism Spectrum Disorder","authors":"Harry M. Voulgarakis, D. Bendell-Estroff, T. Field","doi":"10.1037/bdb0000054","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern and is increasingly prevalent in recent years. There are a variety of risk factors for obesity in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To estimate the prevalence of obesity in children with ASD, a secondary data analysis was conducted on the nationally representative National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH; 2011–2012) archival database. Variables specific to ASD as well as body mass index were analyzed using a cross-tabulation analysis to compare a sample of children with ASD with a random control sample. The prevalence of obesity in children with ASD was 12.6% compared with 7.2% of children without ASD. Additionally, 9.3% of children with ASD met criteria for being overweight compared to 7.5% of those without ASD. These findings suggest that children with ASD could benefit from applied behavioral interventions to reduce risk factors for obesity. Specific recommendations for behavior-analytic treatment are discussed as well as recommendations for future research to better understand these risk factors.","PeriodicalId":91847,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral development bulletin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2017-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"6","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Behavioral development bulletin","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1037/bdb0000054","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 6
Abstract
Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern and is increasingly prevalent in recent years. There are a variety of risk factors for obesity in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To estimate the prevalence of obesity in children with ASD, a secondary data analysis was conducted on the nationally representative National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH; 2011–2012) archival database. Variables specific to ASD as well as body mass index were analyzed using a cross-tabulation analysis to compare a sample of children with ASD with a random control sample. The prevalence of obesity in children with ASD was 12.6% compared with 7.2% of children without ASD. Additionally, 9.3% of children with ASD met criteria for being overweight compared to 7.5% of those without ASD. These findings suggest that children with ASD could benefit from applied behavioral interventions to reduce risk factors for obesity. Specific recommendations for behavior-analytic treatment are discussed as well as recommendations for future research to better understand these risk factors.