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The role of fatness on physical fitness in adolescents with and without Down syndrome: The UP&DOWN study

International Journal of Obesity volume 40, pages 22–27 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Adolescents with Down syndrome (DS) exhibit higher levels of fatness and low levels of physical fitness compared with those without DS. In adolescents without DS, fatness is tightly associated with physical fitness, but this association is unclear in adolescents with DS. The aim of this study was to examine the association between several markers of fatness and physical fitness in a relative large sample of adolescents with and without DS.

Subjects/Methods:

A total of 111 adolescents with DS (41 females) aged 11–20 years participated in this cross-sectional study. We also included a sex-matched control group (ratio 1:2) of 222 adolescents without DS aged 12–18 years, participating in the UP&DOWN Study. The Assessing Level of Physical Activity (ALPHA) health-related fitness test battery for adolescents was used to assess fatness and physical fitness.

Results:

Our results show that fatness is not associated with low levels of physical fitness in adolescents with DS (that is, 3 of the 16 analyses identified differences in physical fitness variables by groups of fatness). In contrast, fatness, as expected, is associated with levels of physical fitness in adolescents without DS (that is, 13 of the 16 analyses identified differences in physical fitness variables by groups of fatness).

Conclusions:

The present finding contributes to new knowledge by suggesting that the role of fatness on physical fitness is different in adolescents with and without DS, and consequently, the poor levels of physical fitness in adolescents with DS may be due to the syndrome rather than the high prevalence of obesity from this population.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all adolescents with DS, parents and institution collaborators in this study. This study was supported by the DEP 2010-21662-C04-00 grant from the National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation (R+D+i) MICINN.

Author information

Author notes

  1. R Izquierdo-Gomez, D Martínez-Gómez, B Fernhall, A Sanz and Ó L Veiga: See Appendix.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Education, Sport and Human Movement, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    R Izquierdo-Gomez, D Martínez-Gómez, A Sanz & Ó L Veiga

  2. Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA

    B Fernhall

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on behalf of the UP&DOWN study group

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ó L Veiga.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Appendix

Appendix

UP&DOWN group

Coordinator: Ascension Marcos. Principal Investigators: Ascension Marcos, Oscar L. Veiga, Jose Castro-Piñero, and Fernando Bandrés. Scientific Coordinators: David Martinez-Gomez (chair), Jonatan R. Ruiz (co-chair), Ana Carbonell-Baeza, Sonia Gomez-Martinez, and Catalina Santiago. Spanish National Research Council: Ascension Marcos, Sonia Gomez-Martinez, Esther Nova, Esperanza L. Diaz, Belén Zapatera, Ana M. Veses, Jorge R. Mujico, and Alina Gheorghe. Autonomous University of Madrid: Oscar L. Veiga, H. Ariel Villagra, Juan del-Campo, Carlos Cordente (UPM), Mario Diaz, Carlos M. Tejero, Aitor Acha, Jose M. Moya, Alberto Sanz, David Martinez-Gomez, Veronica Cabanas-Sanchez, Gabriel Rodriguez-Romo (UPM), Rocio Izquierdo-Gomez, Laura Garcia-Cervantes, and Irene Esteban-Cornejo. University of Cadiz: José Castro-Piñero, Jesús Mora-Vicente, José L. González-Montesinos, Julio Conde-Caveda, Francisco B. Ortega (UGR), Jonatan R. Ruiz (UGR), Carmen Padilla Moledo, Ana Carbonell Baeza, Palma Chillón (UGR), Jorge del Rosario Fernández, Ana González Galo, Gonzalo Bellvís Guerra, Álvaro Delgado Alfonso, Fernando Parrilla, Roque Gómez, and Juan Gavala. Complutense University of Madrid: Fernando Bandrés, Alejandro Lucia (UEM), Catalina Santiago (UEM), and Felix Gómez-Gallego (UEM).

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Izquierdo-Gomez, R., Martínez-Gómez, D., Fernhall, B. et al. The role of fatness on physical fitness in adolescents with and without Down syndrome: The UP&DOWN study. Int J Obes 40, 22–27 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2015.164

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