title: Prevalence of obesity in ambulatory patients with cerebral palsy in the Korean population: a single institution's experience.
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.
authors: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Korea.
authors: Dae Gyu
authors: DG
authors: Kwon
authors: Seung Chul
authors: SC
authors: Kang
authors: Chin Youb
authors: CY
authors: Chung
authors: Sang Hyeong
authors: SH
authors: Lee
authors: Kyoung Min
authors: KM
authors: Lee
authors: In Ho
authors: IH
authors: Choi
authors: Tae-Joon
authors: TJ
authors: Cho
authors: Won Joon
authors: WJ
authors: Yoo
authors: Young Jin
authors: YJ
authors: Park
authors: Moon Seok
authors: MS
authors: Park
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000150:complications*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D016138:Walking; D055815:Young Adult