Assessment of people who may be overweight or obese

The guidelines for preventing, assessing and managing people with developmental disability who are overweight or obese are the same as for others in the community¹. Some modifications are needed to cater for their cognitive or physical impairments; see strategies for managing healthy eating and weight.

Measure the person’s height and weight to calculate body mass index (BMI) (or percentile, for children):

for adults, see Body mass index to assess body weight for classification of overweight and obese according to BMI
for children, see growth percentile charts.

Serial weight measurements are useful to assess bodyweight and monitor efficacy of interventions. For people who are non-ambulant or have poor balance, obtaining an accurate weight is difficult. Specialised wheelchair or hoist scales will be required. These maybe available through local hospital outpatient departments or community health centres—consult hospital dietitians for advice on availability. When height or weight cannot be accurately measured, triceps skin fold thickness (ie measurement of subcutaneous fat) or mid-upper arm circumference measurements can be used. The level of physical activity (including incidental activity) also needs to be estimated.

¹ Australian dietary guidelines, published by the National Health and Medical Research Council, are available here. Australian exercise and physical activity guidelines, published by the Australian Government Department of Health, are available here.Return