Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy
Open Access

Research Article

Obesity Treatment in Children with Intellectual Impairment: Outcome of a Multidisciplinary Inpatient Program

¹De Hondsberg, Koraalgroep, Oisterwijk, The Netherlands

²Maxima Medisch Centrum, Veldhoven, The Netherlands

³Department of Human Biology, NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

*Corresponding Author:

Prof. Dr. van Baak MA, MD
Department of Human Biology
NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism
Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616
6200-MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 43 3881630
Fax: +31 43 3690976
E-mail: m.vanbaak@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Received date: October 26, 2016; Accepted date: December 06, 2016; Published date: December 09, 2016

Citation: Verreussel MJT, Dieleman JP, Rasenberg S, Veen-Roelofs J, van Baak MA (2016) Obesity Treatment in Children with Intellectual Impairment: Outcome of a Multidisciplinary Inpatient Program. J Obes Weight Loss Ther 6:328. doi: 10.4172/2165-7904.1000328

Copyright: © 2016 Verreussel MJT, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Background: Obesity is common in children and adolescents with intellectual impairment. In this study the effects of an inpatient multidisciplinary weight control program on BMI-SDS, body weight and BMI in children and adolescents with overweight/obesity and intellectual impairment with or without behavioural problems were evaluated.
Methods: 101 overweight and obese children/adolescents with intellectual impairment with or without behavioural problems that were referred to an inpatient obesity treatment programme were included. The treatment was planned to last 9 months, but could be shortened or extended on an individual basis (mean 355 d, range 95 to 761 d). Data on age, sex, height, body weight and BMI were collected at entry and at the end of treatment.
Results: Initial BMI-SDS was 3.9 ± 0.9 (range 2.0 to 8.4). BMI-SDS was reduced by -1.4 ± 0.7 (P<0.001). Age, gender and the presence of psychiatric disorders did not affect treatment outcome. Being of non-Dutch ethnic origin had a negative effect on the change in BMI-SDS (P=0.029) and longer treatment duration was associated with a larger reduction in BMI-SDS (P=0.002).
Conclusions: The treatment program was effective in obtaining substantial and clinically relevant weight reduction in an inpatient setting in children with intellectual impairment with or without behavioural/psychiatric problems with different causes of obesity.

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