Obesity prevalence would shift significantly under proposed new criteria, study finds

When the additional health issues were included into the criteria for obesity, the prevalence dropped significantly among the 142,250 adults surveyed-with some nations seeing a drop of more than 50%-but the results varied by nation and gender. For example, the East African nation of Malawi had among the highest decreases in obesity prevalence under the proposed definition, but the decline was uneven among men (68%) and women (53%).

While the new definition could be more aligned with current disease risk, the researchers urged caution before considering a shift in obesity surveillance to the proposed standard because doing so would create substantial challenges in terms of measurement, equity, and implementation. And for individuals who would no longer be considered obese, it could provide a dangerous false sense of security.

“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.”

Reference:

Rodrigo M. Carrillo-Larco,Wilmer Cristobal Guzman-Vilca, Prevalence of pre-clinical and clinical obesity in adults: Pooled analysis of 56 population-based national health surveys, PLOS Global Public Health, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0004838.