Obesity in wheelchair users with long-standing spinal cord injury: prevalence and associations with time since injury and physical activity

Study design

Secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from the ALLRISC cohort study.

Objectives

To investigate the prevalence of obesity and its association with time since injury (TSI) and physical activity (PA) in wheelchair users with long-standing (TSI > 10 years) spinal cord injury (SCI).

Setting

Community, The Netherlands.

Methods

Wheelchair users with SCI (N = 282) in TSI strata (10–19, 20–29, and ≥30 years) and divided in meeting SCI-specific exercise guidelines or not. Waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI) were assessed. Participants were classified as being obese (WC > 102 cm for men, WC > 88 cm for women; BMI ≥ 25 kg/m²) or not. Logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate the associations between obesity and TSI and PA.

Results

Almost half of the participants (45–47%) were classified as obese. TSI was significantly associated with obesity, the odds of being obese were 1.4 higher when having a 10 years longer TSI. Furthermore, the odds of being obese were 2.0 lower for participants who were meeting the exercise guidelines.

Conclusions

The prevalence of obesity is high in people with long-standing SCI. Those with a longer TSI and individuals who do not meet the exercise guidelines are more likely to be obese and need to be targeted for weight management interventions.