Research presented at the European Congress on Obesity suggests that the current BMI threshold for obesity may not be suitable for older adults, recommending a lower cut-off of 27 kg/m². This adjustment could lead to more accurate health assessments and better management of obesity-related conditions among middle-aged and older populations.
Obesity is a chronic disease defined by excessive fat deposits, and its identification based on the amount of body fat appears to be the most accurate method, but the WHO relies on a BMI of 30 kg/m² as a universal indicator of obesity in white men and women of all ages. It is calculated by dividing an individual’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters.
Participants were classified according to current WHO BMI cut-offs—1,087 normal-weight , 1,826 overweight , and 1,887 individuals with obesity . Many participants with a BMI indicative of healthy weight were classified as having obesity when accounting for body fat percentage. These new cut-off points also showed a high sensitivity and specificity , indicating a low chance of false negatives and false positives.Strikingly, only 57% of women considered to have obesity according to the new BMI cut-off were correctly classified according to the WHO standard , so around 40% of women with obesity were missed. Similarly, around half of men with obesity were missed based on the current WHO threshold .
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