Obesity and life style of Japanese school children with Down syndrome

A questionnaire-based investigation was performed on 325 Japanese school children with Down syndrome ages 6 to 18. Data on height and body weight, eating habits, physical activity for these children were obtained through their parents. Proportion of obese children was higher among these subjects than the average for Japanese children (34.3% and 7.47% respectively, for the ages from 6 to 14). We examined characteristics of eating habits and physical activities between the obese group (obesity index greater than 20% above the average of Japanese school children) and the non-obese group. Obesity started to increase in the obese group around age 7. The obese group tended to have had a greater intake of sweets, juice and total foods in their preschool days, but unexpectedly had been physically more active in their primary school days.