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Association of poverty and social exclusion with body mass index among Special Olympics athletes in Europe

  • Original Article
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International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

To examine the association of a risk of poverty and social exclusion (AROPE), age, and gender with the body mass index (BMI) status of European Special Olympics athletes.

Methods

BMI records were available for 1905 children and youth and 5517 adults from the Special Olympics International (SOI) Health Promotion database. AROPE was extracted from EU Eurostat statistics. Logistic regression analyses were used to predict BMI status.

Results

For children/youth and adults, respectively, 9.4 and 6.3% were underweight and 25.3 and 44.6% were overweight/obese. Being underweight was significantly associated with higher AROPE rates. Being female and lower AROPE rates were significantly associated with overweight/obesity for both children/youth (OR 1.27; 95% CI 1.07–1.50 and OR 0.97; 95% CI 0.96–0.98) and adults (OR 1.55; 95% CI 1.39–1.72 and OR 0.96; 95% CI 0.95–0.98).

Conclusions

The Europe 2020 “platform against poverty” strategy aims to ensure that those experiencing poverty and social exclusion share the benefits of economic growth. These findings suggest that SOI health promotion efforts to foster healthy BMI are needed and should be tailored to specific social and economic circumstances in Europe.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pauli Rintala.

Ethics declarations

All procedures performed in the study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committees of each participating university. In order of authorship: University of Jyväskylä, University of Victoria, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and State University of New York College at Cortland.

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Rintala, P., Temple, V.A., Lloyd, M. et al. Association of poverty and social exclusion with body mass index among Special Olympics athletes in Europe. Int J Public Health 62, 921–928 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-017-0982-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-017-0982-5

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