‘New Obesity Definition Raises the Number Who Have It
Miriam E.Tucker July 08, 2025
'About 1 in 5 people considered overweight based on BMI alone would be classified as having obesity based on the European Association for the Study of Obesity’s (EASO’s) new framework aimed at defining obesity beyond BMI.
The EASO framework defines obesity as a BMI ≥ 30 or BMI ≥ 25 and waist-to-height ratio ≥0.5, plus any obesity-related medical, functional, or psychological complications. It was published in July 2024 in Nature Medicine. The new study, published on July 7, 2025, in Annals of Internal Medicine (AIM) using 1999-2018 data from the US National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES), suggests that people previously considered overweight by BMI between 25 and< 30 who are now considered to have obesity based on the EASO framework appear to be at an increased risk for mortality compared with people with normal weight with no comorbidities. However, they are not at an increased risk compared with adults with normal weight who do have comorbidities.’
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HIFA profile: Joseph Ana is the Lead Senior Fellow/Medical Consultant at the Centre for Clinical Governance Research and Patient Safety in Calabar, Nigeria, established by HRI Global (former HRIWA). He is a member of the World Health Organisation’s Technical Advisory Group on Integrated Care in primary, emergency, operative, and critical care (TAG-IC2). As the Cross River State Commissioner for Health, he led the introduction of the Homegrown Quality Tool, the 12-Pillar Clinical Governance Programme, in Nigeria (2004-2008). For sustainability, he established the Department of Clinical Governance, Servicom & e-health in the Cross River State Ministry of Health, Nigeria. His main interest is in whole health sector and system strengthening in Lower, Low and Middle Income Countries (LLMICs). He has written six books on the 12-Pillar Clinical Governance programme, suitable for LLMICs, including the TOOLS for Implementation. He served as Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association’s Standing Committee on Clinical Governance (2012-2022), and he won the Nigeria Medical Association’s Award of Excellence on three consecutive occasions for the innovation. He served as Chairman, Quality & Performance, of the Technical Working Group for the implementation of the Nigeria Health Act 2014. He is member, National Tertiary Health Institutions Standards Committee of the Federal Ministry of Health. He is the pioneer Secretary General/Trustee-Director of the NMF (Nigerian Medical Forum) which took the BMJ to West Africa in 1995. Joseph is a member of the HIFA Steering Group and the HIFA working group on Community Health Workers. (http://www.hifa.org/support/members/joseph-0 http://www.hifa.org/people/steering-group). jneana AT yahoo.co.uk