Students with disabilities are 38 percent more likely to be overweight or obese than their peers, according to a report from AbilityPath.org released today.
My colleague Nirvi Shah has the full story over on the On Special Education blog.
I’ll highlight some of the frightening statistics from Nirvi’s post:
Analyzing data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey, the report's authors found that almost 51 percent of children receiving special education services were overweight or obese. While about 81 percent of children with limitations on their physical activity were overweight, so were 44 percent of children with attention deficit disorder, 67 percent of the teens with autism spectrum disorder, and 86 percent of the teens with Down syndrome. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that health-care costs of obesity related to disability is about $44 billion each year."
Between this report and the study from yesterday that found obese youths going about losing weight the wrong way, this week has been a harsh reminder of just how wide-reaching the youth obesity crisis has become in the U.S.