Credit score: CC0 Public Area
Within the first multinational research of a proposed change to how weight problems is outlined—which requires well being components past an individual’s top and weight to be thought of—a world group of researchers discovered the prevalence of weight problems would drop considerably, highlighting considerations that the brand new standards may hinder the prevention and early detection of significant well being situations.
The research, printed Thursday in Plos International Public Well being, was authored by researchers from Emory College and Johns Hopkins College within the U.S., College of Queensland in Australia, Zhejiang College Faculty of Medication in China, and Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and Universidad Científica del Sur in Peru. It analyzed knowledge from 56 nations to check the prevalence of pre-clinical and scientific weight problems utilizing the prevailing BMI standards with what the prevalence could be underneath the proposed standards that requires no less than one well being situation to already be current earlier than an individual is taken into account clinically overweight, corresponding to diabetes, hypertension, or excessive ldl cholesterol.
“Obesity is a serious problem and the definitions we use have implications for clinical treatment, health expenditures, disease surveillance, and for people’s awareness of their own health risks. So, it is important to understand how much any new definition would impact the prevalence of obesity,” says the research’s lead writer Rodrigo M. Carrillo-Larco, MD, Ph.D., assistant professor of worldwide well being at Emory College’s Rollins Faculty of Public Well being.
When the extra well being points have been included into the standards for weight problems, the prevalence dropped considerably among the many 142,250 adults surveyed—with some nations seeing a drop of greater than 50%—however the outcomes various by nation and gender. For instance, the East African nation of Malawi had among the many highest decreases in weight problems prevalence underneath the proposed definition, however the decline was uneven amongst males (68%) and ladies (53%).
Whereas the brand new definition could possibly be extra aligned with present illness threat, the researchers urged warning earlier than contemplating a shift in weight problems surveillance to the proposed normal as a result of doing so would create substantial challenges when it comes to measurement, fairness, and implementation. And for people who would now not be thought of overweight, it may present a harmful false sense of safety.
“At the population level we would expect the prevalence of obesity to drop, but we should be mindful that it’s an artificial drop because the new definition is more strict or complex—that reduction in obesity is not real,” Carrillo-Larco says. “If we’re going to use the definition at some point, we need to remember that doesn’t mean preventing obesity and the associated comorbidities are not important. Just because people who have high BMI but no additional comorbidities would not be considered clinically obese, it does not mean that by some miracle their risk has reduced. They should still receive preventive care counseling, they should still be eating healthy diets, and they should continue working to achieve their optimal healthy weight.”
Extra info:
Rodrigo M. Carrillo-Larco et al, Prevalence of pre-clinical and scientific weight problems in adults: Pooled evaluation of 56 population-based nationwide well being surveys, PLOS International Public Well being (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0004838
Offered by
Emory College
Quotation:
Weight problems prevalence would shift considerably underneath proposed new standards, research finds (2025, July 26)
retrieved 26 July 2025
from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2025-07-obesity-prevalence-shift-significantly-criteria.html
This doc is topic to copyright. Other than any honest dealing for the aim of personal research or analysis, no
half could also be reproduced with out the written permission. The content material is supplied for info functions solely.
