Waist-to-height ratio more effective than BMI for obesity diagnosis: Study

Obesity can no longer be just defined by body mass index (BMI) and rather should be about how body fat is distributed throughout one's body, researchers said while launching a new framework for diagnosing and managing obesity.

Published in the journal Nature Medicine, the framework looks specifically at fat accumulated in the abdomen, measured as 'waist-to-height ratio' -- an increased value of which is related to a higher risk of developing cardiometabolic complications, according to the researchers.

An "important novelty" of the framework is including a waist-to-height ratio higher than 0.5, along with a BMI of 25-30, for diagnosing obesity, the authors, representing the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO), said.

"The choice of introducing waist-to-height ratio, instead of waist circumference, in the diagnostic process is due to its superiority as a cardiometabolic disease risk marker," they wrote.

Accumulation of abdominal fat is a more reliable predictor of hea