Health Comparison: Special Olympics Athletes, Active and Inactive Individuals with Intellectual Disability

Special Olympics International has the world's largest database on the health of people with intellectual disability, but the data are limited to Special Olympics athletes only. To better understand the similarities and differences between people with intellectual disability participating in Special Olympics and other people with intellectual disability, the current exploratory study compared the demographic data and the health of Special Olympics Quebec (OSQ) athletes (N=122) to those of an active group (N=285) and an inactive group (N=226) of people with intellectual disability. We found differences related to age, intellectual disability severity, mobility, work status, medications, podiatry consultations, allergies, migraines, drinking and behavioural disorders. Our study suggests that the inactive group has more impairments and more behavioural disorders, and that the active group differs from the OSQ group only on a few variables. We discuss these results and the need for future research.