Abstract

first_pagesettingsOrder Article Reprints Open AccessArticle Primary Validation of the Submandibular Skinfold as an Anthropometric Measurement of Cardiometabolic Risk in People with Intellectual Disabilities by Paloma Ferrero-Hernández 1ORCID,Claudio Farías-Valenzuela 2ORCID,Gerson Ferrari 3,4ORCID,Sebastián Álvarez-Arangua 5ORCID,Hans Villalobos-Flores 6 andPedro Valdivia-Moral 7,*ORCID 1 Facultad de Educación y Cultura, Universidad SEK, Santiago 7520318, Chile 2 Instituto del Deporte, Universidad de las Américas, Santiago 9170022, Chile 3 Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física, el Deporte y la Salud, Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH), Santiago 9170022, Chile 4 Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Santiago 7500912, Chile 5 Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, School of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Science, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago 7591538, Chile 6 Functional Movement, Santiago 8320000, Chile 7 Department of Didactics of Musical, Plastic and Body Expression, Faculty of Education, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(3), 1658; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20031658 Received: 12 December 2022 / Revised: 12 January 2023 / Accepted: 13 January 2023 / Published: 17 January 2023 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Discover New Strategies for Working on Physical Activity: A Healthy and Educational Perspective from a Multidisciplinary Approach) Download Browse Figures Versions Notes Abstract The accumulation of body fat is an important cardiometabolic risk factor; however, there is no consensus about which measure is more reliable for the assessment of cardiometabolic risk in people with intellectual disabilities. The aim of the present study was to primarily validate the submandibular skinfold as an anthropometric measurement of cardiometabolic risk in children, adolescents, and adults with intellectual disabilities, using a cross-sectional study made up of 131 people (67.2% men) with mild and moderate intellectual disability. The cardiometabolic risk indicators used were: body mass index (kg/m2), neck circumference (cm), waist circumference (cm), calf circumference (cm) and waist-to-height ratio. Moderate correlations were demonstrated between the submandibular skinfold measure and the anthropometric measurements analyzed in the three age categories, showing the highest correlation (r = 0.70) between the submandibular skinfold and BMI in the adolescent group and waist-to-height ratio in adults. The implementation of the submandibular skinfold measurement is suggested as an easy, fast, and minimally invasive anthropometric measurement as part of the physical and nutritional evaluation for the assessment of cardiometabolic risk in people with intellectual disabilities.