Childhood obesity and the intersection of race/ethnicity and autism spectrum disorder

Children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been identified as one of the many pediatric subgroups who experience elevated prevalence of obesity which constitutes a significant public health problem. Little is known about how race/ethnicity moderates this association. This secondary data analysis project will leverage three existing datasets to explore the intersectionality of race/ethnicity and disability status (i.e. ASD) as they relate to childhood obesity. We will pool data from the National Survey of Children's Health (2016 2017 2018 2019) the Adolescent Brain Cognition Development Study and Simons Simplex Collection (siblings where one child has ASD) to meet three goals. Goal 1 will characterize the extent to which race/ethnicity moderates the impact of disability (ASD status) on the prevalence of child obesity; Goal 2 will characterize the extent to which race/ethnicity moderates the mediating effects of obesity risk factors such as physical activity screen and sedentary time and sleep duration; and Goal 3 will assess whether the findings from these analyses persist in girls with ASD given the dearth of data in females. The publications that arise from this effort and associated presentations stand to provide some of the first evidence of race/ethnicity-disability intersectionality in childhood obesity