Dr. Robert Ross comments on how obesity-related health evaluations must include waist circumference.

Source:  Obesity-related health evaluations must include waist circumference, Healio, Endocrine Today, February 9, 2020

“Clinicians should evaluate waist circumference in addition to BMI when determining obesity-related cardiometabolic risks, according to a consensus statement published in Nature Reviews Endocrinology.

“Obesity is an issue, but not all shapes of obesity present the same risk. The addition of waist circumference to BMI allows practitioners a simple, cost-effective way to assess the high-risk phenotype of obesity,” Robert Ross, PhD, professor of exercise physiology in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, told Healio. “If you’re simply measuring body weight and dividing by height to indicate to your client’s or your patient’s level of obesity-related risk, your job is not done. You need to add waist circumference.”