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Home / Дослідження

A New Approach to Obesity Diagnosis: Why BMI Is No Longer the Sole Criterion

🔬 Дослідження 2 min read 👁 0

An international panel of experts has proposed a new obesity diagnostic framework that accounts for internal organ function and body fat distribution rather than relying solely on weight.

Prepared by the Здоров'я Пульс editorial team with AI assistance from public sources · Source: ТСН: Здоров'я · How we work

A New Approach to Obesity Diagnosis: Why BMI Is No Longer the Sole Criterion🔬Дослідження

Photo: ТСН: Здоров'я

Key points

  • BMI does not account for muscle mass or fat distribution
  • New method incorporates organ function and waist measurements
  • Distinguishing between pre-clinical and clinical obesity improves care

The traditional Body Mass Index (BMI) has long served as a primary tool for weight assessment, yet medical experts have highlighted its significant limitations. Because BMI fails to distinguish between muscle mass and fat tissue, millions of individuals may receive inaccurate diagnoses, while patients with genuine metabolic risks may be overlooked.

A team led by Professor Francesco Rubino of King's College London has developed an updated approach, detailed in a report by The Lancet. Researchers analyzed medical records from 800,000 individuals across four countries to validate the effectiveness of this multi-stage diagnostic process.

The new system relies on several key metrics:

  • Measuring waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio to assess body fat distribution.
  • Evaluating internal organ function to detect the physiological impact of excess adipose tissue.
  • Distinguishing between "pre-clinical" obesity, which poses risks, and "clinical" obesity, which has already impaired bodily functions.
"This misclassification can affect tens of millions of people, so the inaccuracy of BMI is a major problem both globally and for individuals," said Francesco Rubino.

This method allows clinicians to determine more precise treatment strategies: from preventive monitoring for healthy individuals with higher BMI to immediate medical intervention for patients whose health is already compromised.

Source ТСН: Здоров'я — tsn.ua/zdorovya/milyonam-liudey-nepravylno-diahnostuvaly-ozyrinnia-vche… ↗

#obesity#BMI#diagnosis#metabolism

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