Abstract
Obesity, particularly with early onset and severe degree, imposes function limitations in different areas. We need appropriate assessment tools to identify and evaluate the obesity-related disability. Generally, tests of physical and cardiorespiratory performance (FIM, 6MWT, dyspnoea score, sub-maximal exercise test), score of daily life activities (ADL o IADL), and quality of life (SF36, IWQL) are used. However, these instruments have not been specifically developed for obese patients and cover only a part of the complex disability that is associated with this condition, thus underestimating the disability risk profile. In the last years, a reference classification of disability (ICF) proposed by WHO has been used also in obesity. Areas such as mobility, self-care, handling stress, and social relationships appear hindered. Recently, an obesity-specific disability questionnaire (TSD-OC) has been validated against other standard tools and linked with ICF. A correct identification and evaluation of functional, psychological, and social limitations/disability secondary to obesity might promote long-term successful rehabilitation intervention to reduce the impact of this disease.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Al Snith S, Ottenbacher KJ, Markides KS, Kuo YF, Eschbach K, Goodwin JS (2007) The effect of obesity on disability versus mortality in older. Americans. Arch Intern Med 167:774–780
Alley DE, Chang VW (2007) The changing relationship of obesity and disability, 1988–2004. JAMA 298:2020–2027
American Thoracic Society (ATS) (2002) Statement: guidelines for the six-minute walk test. ATS committee on proficiency standards for clinical pulmonary function laboratories. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 166:111–117
Andreyeva T, Sturm R, Ringel JS (2004) Moderate and severe obesity have large differences in health care costs. Obes Res 12:1936–1943
Apovian CM, Frey CM, Wood GC, Rogers JZ, Still CD, Jensen GL (2002) Body mass index and physical function in older women. Obes Res 10:740–747
Backholer K, Wong E, Freak-Poli R, Walls HL, Peeters A (2012) Increasing body weight and risk of limitations in activities of daily living: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Obes Rev 13:456–468
Bergner M, Bobitt RA, Carter WB, Gilson BS (1981) The sickness impact profile: development and final revision of a health status measure. Med Care 19:787–805
Bogni M, Vigna L, Capodaglio P, Brunani A, Cimolin V, Donini LM, Riboldi L (2011) Impatto della disabilità correlata all’obesità nelle diverse categorie professionali. G Ital Med Lav Erg 33(Suppl):364–366
Borg G (1982) Psychophysical bases of perceived exertion. Med Sci Sports Exerc 14:377–381
Brunani A, Liuzzi A, Sirtori A, Raggi A, Berselli ME, Villa V, Ceriani F, Tacchini E, Vicari V, Parisio C, Vismara L, Zanini A, Vinci C, Contini F, Braga E, Ricappi A, Camerlengo M, Ristea M, Leonardi M (2010) Mapping an obesity clinical evaluation protocol to the international classification of functioning, disability and health. Disabil Rehabil 32:417–423
Bucks RS, Ashworth DL, Wilcock GK, Siegfried K (1996) Assessment of activities of daily living in dementia: development of the bristol activities of daily living scale. Age Ageing 25:113–120
Butler GS, Vallis TM, Perey B, Veldhuyzen van Zanten SJ, MacDonald AS, Konok G (1999) The obesity adjustment survey: development of a scale to assess psychological adjustment to morbid obesity. Int J Obes 23:505–511
Capodaglio P, Castelnuovo G, Brunani A, Vismara L, Villa V, Capodaglio EM (2010) Functional limitations and occupational issues in obesity: a review. Int J Ocuup Saf Ergon 16:507–523
Capodaglio P, De Souza S, Parisio C, Precilios H, Vismara L, Cimolin V, Brunani A (2012) Reference values for the six-minute walking test in obese subjects. Disabil Rehab. doi: 10.3109/09638288.2012.726313
Carpiniello B, Pinna F, Pillai G, Nonnoi V, Pisano E, Corrias S, Orrù MG, Orrù W, Velluzzi F, Loviselli A (2009) Obesity and psychopathology. a study of psychiatric comorbidity among patients attending a specialist obesity unit. Epidemiol Psichiatr Soc 8:119–127
Cash SW, Beresford SA, Henderson JA, McTiernan A, Xiao L, Wang CY, Patrick DL (2011) Dietary and physical activity behaviours related to obesity-specific quality of life and work productivity: baseline results from a worksite trial. Br J Nutr 6:1–9
Chen H, Guo X (2008) Obesity and functional disability in elderly Americans. J Am Geriatr Soc 56:689–694
Chen H, Bermudez OI, Tucker KL (2002) Waist circumference and weight change are associated with disability among elderly Hispanics. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 57A:M19–M25
Chetta A, Zanini A, Pisi G, Aiello M, Tzani P, Neri M, Olivieri D (2006) References values for the 6-minute walk test in healthy subjects 20–50 years old. Respir Med 100:1573–1578
Chwastiak LA, Rosenheck RA, Kazis LE (2011) Association of psychiatric illness and obesity, physical inactivity, and smoking among a national sample of veterans. Psychosomatics 52:230–236
Claessen H, Arndt V, Drath C, Brenner H (2009) Overweight, obesity and risk of work disability: a cohort study of construction workers in Germany. Occup Environ Med 66:402–409
Claessen H, Brenner H, Drath C, Arndt V (2012) Repeated measures of body mass index and risk of health related outcomes. Eur J Epidemiol 27:215–224
Davies AR, Sherbourne CR, Peterson JR, Ware Jr JE (1988) Scoring manual: adult health status and patient satisfaction measures used in RAND’s health insurance experiment. The RAND corporation (No. N-2190-HHS), Santa Monica
Donini LM, Cuzzolaro M, Spera G, Badiali M, Basso N, Bollea MR, Bosello O, Brunani A, Busetto L, Cairella G, Cannella C, Capodaglio P, Carbonelli MG, Castellaneta E, Castra R, Clini E, Contaldo F, Dalla Ragione L, Dalle Grave R, D’Andrea F, Del Balzo V, De Cristofaro P, Di Flaviano E, Fassino S, Ferro AM, Forestieri P, Franzoni E, Gentile MG, Giustini A, Jacoangeli F, Lubrano C, Lucchin L, Manara F, Marangi G, Marcelli M, Marchesini G, Marri G, Marrocco W, Melchionda N, Mezzani B, Migliaccio P, Muratori F, Nizzoli U, Ostuzzi R, Panzolato G, Pasanisi F, Persichetti P, Petroni ML, Pontieri V, Prosperi E, Renna C, Rovera G, Santini F, Saraceni V, Savina C, Scuderi N, Silecchia G, Strollo F, Todisco P, Tubili C, Ugolini G, Zamboni M (2010) Obesity and eating disorders. Indications for the different levels of care. An Italian expert consensus document. Eat Weight Disord 15(1–2 Suppl):1–31
Donini LM, Brunani A, Sirtori A, Savina C, Tempera S, Cuzzolaro M, Spera G, Cimolin V, Precilios H, Raggi A, Capodaglio P; SIO-ISDCA Task Force (2011) Assessing disability in morbidly obese individuals: the Italian society of obesity test for obesity-related disabilities. Disabil Rehabil 33:2509–2518
Dumortier M, Brandou F, Perez-Martin A, Fedou C, Mercier J, Brun JF (2003) Low intensity endurance exercise targeted for lipid oxidation improves body composition and insulin sensitivity in patients with the metabolic syndrome. Diabetes Metab 29:509–518
Dupuy HJ (1984) The psychological general well-being (PGWB) index. In: Wenger NK, Mattsson ME, Furberg CD, Elinson J (eds) Assessment of quality of life in clinical trials of cardiovascular therapies. Le Jacq Publishing Inc, pp 170–183
Elloumi M, Makni E, Ounis OB, Moalla W, Zbidi A, Zaoueli M, Lac G, Tabka Z (2011) Six-minute walking test and the assessment of cardiorespiratory responses during weight-loss programmes in obese children. Physiother Res Int 16:32–42
Enright PL (2003) The six-minute walk test. Respir Care 48:783–785
Ezzati M, Lopez AD, Rodgers A, Vander Hoorn S, Murray CJ (2002) Comparative risk assessment collaborating group: selected major risk factors and global and regional burden of disease. Lancet 360:1347–1360
Fletcher CM (1952) The clinical diagnosis of pulmonary emphysema-an experimental study. Proc R Soc Med 45:577–584
Ford ES, Li C, Zhao G, Pearson WS, Capewell S (2009) Trends in the prevalence of low risk factor burden for cardiovascular disease among United States adults. Circulation 120:1181–1188
Ford ES, Li C, Zhao G, Tsai J (2011) Trends in obesity and abdominal obesity among adults in United States from 1999–2008. Int J Obes 35:736–743
Gerlach Y, Williams MT, Coates AM (2012) Weighing up the evidence-a systematic review of measures used for the sensation of breathlessness in obesity. Int J Obes. doi:10.1038/ijo.2012.49
Gibbons WJ, Fruchter N, Sloan S, Levy RD (2001) Reference values for a multiple repetition 6-minute walk test in healthy adults older than 20 years. J Cardiopulm Rehabil 21:87–93
Gibson GJ (1998) Obesity, respiratory function and breathlessness. Chest 114:1372–1377
Guallar-Castillón P, Sagardui-Villamor J, Banegas JR, Graciani A, Fornés NS, López García E, Rodríguez-Artalejo F (2007) Waist circumference as a predictor of disability among older adults. Obesity 15:233–244
Hamilton BB, Granger CV, Sherwin FS, Zielezny M, Tashman JS. (1987) A uniform national data system for medical rehabilitation. In: Fuhrer MJ (ed) Rehabilitation outcomes: analysis and measurement. Baltimore
Han JH, Park HS, Shin CI, Chang HM, Yun KE, Cho SH, Choi EY, Lee SY, Kim JH, Sung HN, Kim JH, Choi SI, Yoon YS, Lee ES, Song HR, Bae SC (2009) Metabolic syndrome and quality of life (QOL) using generalised and obesity-specific QOL scales. Int J Clin Pract 63:735–741
Haslam DW, James WPT (2005) Obesity. Lancet 366:1197–1209
Herpertz S, Kielmann R, Wolf AM, Langkafel M, Senf W, Hebebrand J (2003) Does obesity surgery improve psychosocial functioning? A systematic review. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 27:1300–1314
Hirsch C, Anderson ML, Newman A, Kop W, Jackson S, Gottdiener J, Tracy R, Fried LP, Cardiovascular Health Study Research Group (2006) The association of race with frailty: the cardiovascular health study. Ann Epidemiol 16:545–553
Houston DK, Stevens J, Cai J, Morey MC (2005) Role of weight history on functional limitations and disability in late adulthood: the ARIC study. Obes Res 13:1793–1802
Hulens M, Vansant G, Claessens AL, Lysens R, Muls E (2003) Predictors of 6-minute walk test results in lean, obese and morbidly obese women. Scand J Med Sci Sports 13:98–105
Jain NB, Al-Adawi S, Dorvlo ASS, Burke DT (2008) Association between body mass index and functional independence measure in patients with deconditioning. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 87:21–25
Karlsson J, Taft C, Sjostrom L, Torgerson JS, Sullivan M (2003) Psychosocial functioning in the obese before and after weight reduction: construct validity and responsiveness of the obesity related problems scale. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 27:617–630
Karlsson J, Taft C, Ryden A, Sjostrom L, Sullivan M (2007) Ten-year trends in health-related quality of life after surgical and conventional treatment for severe obesity: the SOS intervention study. Int J Obes 31:1248–1261
Katz S, Ford AB, Moskowitz RW, Jackson BA, Jaffe MW (1963) Studies of illness in the aged: the index of ADL: a standardized measure of biological and psychosocial function. JAMA 185:914–919
Kolotkin RL, Crosby RD (2002) Psychometric evaluation of the impact of weight on quality of life-lite questionnaire (IWQOL-lite) in a community sample. Qual Life Res 11:157–171
Kolotkin RL, Head S, Hamilton M, Tse CK (1995) Assessing impact of weight on quality of life. Obes Res 3:49–56
Kolotkin RL, Crosby RD, Kosloski KD, Williams GR (2001) Development of a brief measure to assess quality of life in obesity. Obes Res 9:102–111
Kolotkin RL, Crosby RD, Williams GR (2002) Health-related quality of life varies among obese subgroups. Obes Res 10:748–756
Kolotkin RL, LaMonte MJ, Litwin S, Crosby RD, Gress RE, Yanowitz FG, Hunt SC, Adams TD (2011) Cardiorespiratory fitness and health-related quality of life in bariatric surgery patients. Obes Surg 21:457–464
Kotseva K, Wood D, De BG, De BD, Pyorala K, Keil U (2009) Cardiovascular prevention guidelines in daily practice: a comparison of EUROASPIRE I, II, and III surveys in eight European countries. Lancet 373:929–940
Larsson UE, Mattsson E (2001) Perceived disability and observed functional limitations in obese women. Int J Obes 25:1705–1712
Larsson UE, Mattsson E (2003) Influence of weight loss programmes on walking speed and relative oxygen cost (%VO2max) in obese women during walking. J Rehabil Med 35:91–97
Larsson EU, Reynisdottir S (2008) The six-minute walk test in outpatients with obesity: reproducibility and known group validity. Physiother Res Int 13:84–93
Lawton MP, Brod EM (1969) Assessment of older people: self-maintaining and instrumental activities of daily living. Gerontologist 9:179–186
Le Pen C, Levy E, Loos F, Banzet MN, Basdevant A (1998) ‘Specific scale’ compared with ‘generic’ scale: a double measurement of the quality of life in a French community sample of obese subjects. J Epidemiol Commun Health 52:445–450
Ling SM, Fried LP, Garrett ES, Fan MY, Rantanen T, Bathon JM (2003) Knee osteoarthritis compromises early mobility function: the Women’s Health and Aging Study II. J Rheumatol 30:114–120
Ling C, Kelechi T, Mueller M, Brotherton S, Smith S (2012) Gait and function in class III obesity. J Obes. doi:10.1155/2012/257468
Locher JL, Roth DL, Ritchie CS, Cox K, Sawyer P, Bodner EV, Allman RM (2007) Body mass index, weight loss, and mortality in community-dwelling older adults. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 62:1389–1392
Mahler DA, Weiberg DH, Wells CK, Feinstein AR (1984) The measurement of dyspnea. Contents, interobserver agreement, and physiologic correlates of two new clinical indexes. Chest 85:751–758
Mannucci E, Ricca V, Barciulli E, Di Bernardo M, Travaglini R, Cabras PL, Rotella CM (1999) Quality of life and overweight: the obesity related well-being (Orwell 97) questionnaire. Addict Behav 24:345–357
Marchesini G, Bellini M, Natale S, Belsito C, Isacco S, Nuccitelli C, Pasqui F, Baraldi L, Forlani G, Melchionda N (2003) Psychiatric distress and health-related quality of life in obesity. Diab Nutr Metab 16:145–154
Marks R (2007) Obesity profiles with knee osteoarthritis: correlation with pain, disability, disease progression. Obesity 15:1867–1874
McHorney CA, Ware JE Jr, Raczek AE (1993) The MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36): II. Psychometric and clinical tests of validity in measuring physical and mental health constructs. Med Care 31:247–263
Mindi A, Wang J, Acharya SD, Yang K, Chasen ER, Choo J, Ye L, Burke LE (2011) Health-related quality of life among participants in the SMART weight loss trial. Appl Nurs Res. doi:10.1016/j.apnr.2011.08.001
Neovius K, Johansson K, Rössner S, Neovius M (2008) Disability pension, employment and obesity status: a systematic review. Obes Rev 9:572–581
Niero M, Martin M, Finger T, Lucas R, Mear I, Wild D, Glauda L, Patrick DL (2002) A new approach to multicultural item generation in the development of two obesity-specific measures: the obesity and weight loss quality of life (OWLQOL) questionnaire and the weight-related symptom measure (WRSM). Clin Ther 24:690–700
Oria HE, Moorehead MK (1998) Bariatric analysis and reporting outcome system (BAROS). Obes Surg 8:487–499
Peyrot N, Thivel D, Isacco L, Morin J, Duche P, Belli A (2009) Do mechanical gait parameters explain the higher metabolic cost of walking in obese adolescents? J Appl Physiol 106:1763–1770
Precilios H, Brunani A, Cimolin V, Tacchini E, Donini LM, Fabris De Souza S, Capodaglio P, Precilios H (2012) Measuring changes after multidisciplinary rehabilitation of obese individuals. J Endocrinol Invest 31. doi: 10.3275/8240
Raggi A, Brunani A, Sirtori A, Liuzzi A, Berselli ME, Villa V, Ceriani F, ICF-Obesity Group, Leonardi M (2010) Obesity-related disability: key factors identified by the international classification of functioning, disability and health (ICF). Disabil Rehabil 32:2028–2034
Raggi A, Sirtori A, Brunani A, Liuzzi A, Leonardi M (2009) Use of the ICF to describe functioning and disability in obese patients. Disabil Rehabil 31(S1):S153–S158
Reuser M, Bonneux1 LG, Willekens FJ (2009) Smoking kills, obesity disables: a multistate approach of the US health and retirement survey. Obesity 17:783–789
Reynolds SL, Saito Y, Crimmins EM (2005) The impact of obesity on active life expectancy in older American men and women. Gerontologist 45:438–444
Rieger E, Wilfley DE, Stein RI, Marino V, Crow SJ (2005) A comparison of quality of life in obese individuals with and without binge eating disorder. Int J Eat Disord 37:234–240
Ryden A, Karlsson L, Persson O, Sjostrom L, Sullivan M (1999) The obesity-related coping questionnaire (OCQ) from the Swedish obese subjects (SOS) study. Qual Life Res 8:580A
Ryden A, Karlsson J, Persson LO, Sjostrom L, Taft C, Sullivan M (2001) Obesity-related coping and distress and relationship to treatment preference. Br J Clin Psychol 40:177–188
Rydén A, Karlsson J, Persson L-O, Sjöström L, Taft C, Sullivan M (2001) Obesity-related coping and distress and relations to treatment preference. Br J Clin Psychol 40:177–188
Schultz Y, Kyle UU, Pichard C (2002) Fat-free mass index and fat mass index percentiles in Caucasians aged 18–98 y. Int J Obes 26:953–960
Scott K, Raj P, Anderson C, Philip J (2006) Population-based analysis of obesity and workforce participation. Obesity 14:920–927
Sin DD, Jones RL, Man SF (2002) Obesity is a risk factor for dyspnea but not for airflow obstruction. Arch Intern Med 162:1477–1481
Sirtori A, Brunani A, Villa V, Berselli ME, Croci M, Leonardi M, Raggi A (2012) Obesity is a marker of reduction in QoL and disability. Sci World J 2012:167520
Sjo¨berg L, Svensson E, Persson L (1979) The measurement of mood. Scand J Psychol 20:1–18
Stenholm S, Koster A, Alley DE, Houston DK, Kanaya A, Lee JS, Newman AB, Satterfield S, Simonsick EM, Visser M, Harris TB, Ferrucci L and for the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study (2010) Joint association of obesity and metabolic syndrome with incident mobility limitation in older men and women—results from the health aging, and body composition study. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 65A(1):84–92
Stenholm S, Alley D, Bandinelli S, Griswold ME, Koskinen S, Rantanen T, Guralnik JM, Ferrucci L (2009) The effect of obesity combined with low muscle strength on decline in mobility in older persons: results from the InCHIANTI study. Int J Obes 33:635–644
Stewart ST, Cutler DM, Rosen AB (2009) Forecasting the effects of obesity and smoking on US life expectancy. N Engl J Med 361:2252–2260
Stucki A, Daansen P, Fuessl M, Cieza A, Huber E, Atkinson R, Kostanjsek N, Stucki G, Ruof J (2004) ICF core sets for obesity. J Rehabil Med 44 (Suppl):107–113
Sullivan M, Karlsson J, Sjostrom L, Taft C (2001) Why quality-of-life measures should be used in the treatment of patients with obesity. In: Bjorntorp P (ed) International textbook in obesity. Chichester
Teixeira PJ, Going SB, Sardinha LB, Lohman TG (2005) A review of psychosocial pre-treatment predictors of weight control. Obes Rev 6:43–65
Tunceli K, Li K, Williams LK (2006) Long-term effects of obesity on employment and work limitations among U.S. Adults, 1986 to 1999. Obesity 14:1637–1646
Vincent HK, Vincent KR (2008) Obesity and inpatient rehabilitation outcomes following knee arthroplasty: a multicenter study. Obesity 16:130–136
Vincent KR, Lee LW, Weng J, Alfano AP, Vincent HK (2006) A preliminary examination of the CMS eligibility criteria in total-joint arthroplasty. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 85:872–881
Vincent HR, Vincent KR, Lamb KM (2010) Obesity and mobility disability in the older adult. Obes Rev 11:568–579
Wadden TA, Phelan S (2002) Assessment of quality of life in obese individuals. Obes Res 10(Suppl 1):50–57
Ware JE, Snow KK, Kosinski M, Gandek B (1993) SF36 health survey: manual and interpretation guide. The Health Institute, New England Medical Center
Weiner S, Sauerland S, Fein M, Blanco R, Pomhoff I, Weiner RA (2005) The Bariatric quality of life index: a measure of well-being in obesity surgery patients. Obes Surg 15:538–545
Wise RA, Brown CD (2005) Minimal clinically important differences in the six-minute walk test and the incremental shuttle walking test. J Chronic Obstr Pulm Dis 2:125–129
World Health Organization (2001) International classification of functioning, disability and health: ICF. World Health Organization, Geneva
World Health Organization (2006) Obesity and overweight (WHO Fact Sheet No. 311) WHO Media centre 2006. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/print.html
World Health Organization (2011) Obesity and overweight. Report No. 311
Zamboni M, Mazzali G, Zoico E, Harris TB, Meigs JB, Di Francesco V, Fantin F, Bissoli L, Bosello O (2005) Health consequences of obesity in the elderly: a review of four unresolved questions. Int J Obes 29:1011–1029
Zamboni M, Mazzali G, Fantin F, Rossi A, DiFrancesco V (2007) Sarcopenic obesity: a new category of obesity in the elderly. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis 18:388–395
Zigmond AS, Snaith RP (1983) The hospital anxiety and depression scale. Acta Psychiatr Scand 67:361–370
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brunani, A., Capodaglio, P., Leonardi, M., Raggi, A. (2013). The Obesity-Related Disability. In: Capodaglio, P., Faintuch, J., Liuzzi, A. (eds) Disabling Obesity. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35972-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35972-9_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-35971-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-35972-9
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)