Is fatness or fitness key for survival in older adults with intellectual disabilities?
Alyt Oppewal, Thessa I M Hilgenkamp
PMID 32168552WHAT IT FOUND
Older adults with intellectual disabilities who were unfit had 3.6 to 4.6 times higher mortality risk than those who were fit, regardless of obesity.
Fitness predicted survival; weight measures did not. Prioritize improving physical fitness over weight reduction for healthy aging.
Key findings
01Unfit older adults with intellectual disabilities had 3.6 to 4.6 times higher mortality risk than fit adults, regardless of obesity status.
02Obesity measures (BMI, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, body fat percentage) were not significantly related to survival after adjusting for covariates.
03Comfortable gait speed was a significant predictor of survival, with each 0.1 m/s increase associated with a 7.8% to 8.3% lower mortality risk.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Participants with severe or profound intellectual disabilities and wheelchair users were underrepresented or excluded from fitness measurements, limiting generalizability to those with higher support needs. Fitness was assessed only by comfortable gait speed, not cardiorespiratory fitness, which is the standard measure in general population studies. Obesity and fitness were measured at a single time point, so changes over time were not captured. The study focused on survival (being alive) and did not assess quality of life or functional status during the follow-up period.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that obesity is harmless or that weight reduction is unnecessary. This study shows that fitness is a stronger predictor of survival than fatness in this population, and that fit individuals with obesity had similar survival to fit individuals without obesity. It does not prove that excess weight has no negative health effects on other outcomes like quality of life or comorbidities.