Association Between Body Mass Index and Disability in Children With Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease

Objective: This study examined the association between body mass index (BMI) and disability in children with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 477 patients with CMT aged 3-20 years from the Inherited Neuropathy Consortium, and 316 age-and-sex matched healthy children from the 1000 Norms Project. BMI was categorised according to the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) criteria, and BMI categorisation was compared with healthy children. IOTF categories (adult equivalent BMI cut points) were: severely underweight (BMI Results: There was a higher proportion of children with CMT categorised as severely underweight (5.7%vs0.3%), underweight (10.3%vs5.1%), and obese (7.3%vs3.8%) (p Conclusion: The proportion of underweight and obese children with CMT is higher compared to age-and sex-matched healthy children. Children with CMT who are underweight or obese are associated with greater disability than compared children with CMT of healthy weight.