The single use of body mass index for the obesity paradox is misleading and should be used in conjunction with other obesity indices.

The single use of body mass index for the obesity paradox is misleading and should be used in conjunction with other obesity indices. Postgrad Med. 2019 Jan 11;: Authors: Chrysant SG, Chrysant GS Abstract Overweight and obesity in children and adults have significantly risen in the US and worldwide due to biological, environmental, and cultural drivers and account for about 2.1 billion people. In addition, obesity, even metabolically healthy, is a major risk factor for the metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and hypertension, all significant causes of cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD) heart failure (HF) and stroke. However, despite these causative effects, overweight and obesity frequently, confer a protection in patients with established CVD, CHD, HF, and hypertension, compared to normal weight persons, the so called "obesity paradox". This phenomenon though is not unique, because other studies have not shown a protective effect of overweight and obesity in such patients. These controversial effects of obesity are mostly due to the use of different indices of obesity by the various studies. Most studies have used the body mass index (BMI) as an index of obesity, which is a poor index for total fat or fat distribution. In order to get a better perspective on the true nature of the obesity paradox, a Medline and Embase search of the English language literature was contacted from 2012 to 2018, ...
Source: Postgraduate Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Tags: Postgrad Med Source Type: research