Prevalence of overweight and obesity in Down's syndrome and other mentally handicapped adults living in the community.

To find out the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the mentally handicapped, 183 subjects living in the community were studied; 58 of whom had Down's syndrome. It was found that 70.58% of males and 95.83% of females with Down's syndrome, and 49.29% males and 62.96% females from other mentally handicapped subjects, were categorized as overweight and obese, compared with 40% of males and 32% females in that category from normal population.