Clin Orthop Surg.  2011 Sep;3(3):211-216. 10.4055/cios.2011.3.3.211.

Prevalence of Obesity in Ambulatory Patients with Cerebral Palsy in the Korean Population: A Single Institution's Experience

• Kwon DG
• Kang SC
• Chung CY
• Lee SH
• Lee KM
• Choi IH
• Cho TJ
• Yoo WJ
• Park YJ
• Park MS

• KMID: 1743911
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4055/cios.2011.3.3.211

Abstract

BACKGROUND
There is a worldwide tendency of an increasing prevalence of obesity. Therefore, this study aimed at determining whether such a trend exists among cerebral palsy (CP) patients. We also tried to compare this trend with the trend in the general population. We also discuss the importance of obesity trends in CP patients.
METHODS
This retrospective study was performed on 766 ambulatory patients who were diagnosed with CP since 1996 in our institution. The associations among the prevalence of obesity and the body mass index, age, gender, the type of CP, the gross motor function classification system and the time of survey were investigated.
RESULTS
The overall prevalence of obesity was 5.7%, and the overall prevalence of obesity together with being overweight was 14.6% for the ambulatory patients with CP. The prevalence of obesity and of obesity together with being overweight did not show a statistically significant temporal increase. On the other hand, age and gender were found to affect the body mass index of the ambulatory CP patients (p < 0.001 and 0.003, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS
The extent of obesity and being overweight in the ambulatory patients with CP in this study was far less than that reported in the United States (US). In addition, it appears that the differences of the prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents between those with and without CP are disappearing in the US, whereas the differences of the prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents between those with and without CP seem to be becoming more obvious in Korea. Accordingly, care should be taken when adopting the data originating from the US because this data might be affected by the greater prevalence of obesity and the generally higher body mass indices of the US.

Keyword

Cerebral palsy; Obesity; Body mass index; Gross motor function classification system

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Body Mass Index
Cerebral Palsy/*complications
Child
Child, Preschool
Female
Humans
Korea/epidemiology
Male
Obesity/complications/*epidemiology
Prevalence
Walking
Young Adult

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 The prevalence of obesity in male and female Korean ambulatory children and adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP) by the year. 'General children and adolescents' means the general children and adolescents in Korea, 'Males with CP' means male Korean ambulatory children and adolescents with CP, 'Females with CP' means female Korean ambulatory children and adolescents with CP. The prevalence of obesity in males was higher than that of the females at all times. Although the BMI showed significant difference between the males and females (p = 0.003, not shown as a graph), the differences between the prevalence of obesity in the males and females were not significant (p = 0.098).

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  Fig. 2 Prevalence of obesity among Korean ambulatory children and adolescents with cerebral palsy with respect to unilateral and bilateral involvements by the year. The prevalence of obesity among those with unilateral involvement was non-significantly greater than that among those with bilateral involvement throughout the study period (p = 0.191).

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  Fig. 3 Prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents in the general population and in ambulatory children and adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP) by the year in Korea and the United States (US). The prevalence of obesity has tended to converge in the US, but in Korea it has diverged.

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