Anthropometric assessment in autistic children

Autistic children tend to be overweight and/or obese and this might be related to low levels of physical activity,unusual eating habits,some medications associated with excess weight gain,and genetic basis. macrocephaly is observed regularly in autism. microcephaly occurs in 5-15% of children with autism. this study was done to identify the rates of overweight,obesity,macro,and microcephaly in autistic children and comparing them with control group. a case – control study conducted in the period between the first of february to the tenth march 2015. a sample of (75) children with autism was collected from four specialized institutes for autism located in three different provinces,two in babylon city,one in karbala city,and one in al diwaniya city,and from psychiatric department in central teaching hospital of pediatrics in baghdad city. control group of (75) age and sex matched children was collected at the same time from outpatient clinic in babylon maternity and pediatric teaching hospital. data obtained include questionnaire and anthropometric measures (weight,height,occipto-frontal circumference and body mass index). the study included 75 patients with mean age ± sd of (6.18 ± 2.23) years old and a male to female ratio of 3.69:1.it was found that 19(25.3%) and 11(14.7%) of patients with autism were overweight and obese,respectively and 17(22.7%) and 9(12%) of patients have macro and microcephaly,respectively. © 2017,pakistan pediatric journal. all rights reserved.