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Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Your waistline tells a story BMI can't. A large UK study found that adding central obesity measures — like waist-to-hip and waist-to-height ratios — to BMI significantly improved identification of people at risk for developing multiple chronic conditions. Adults who were overweight and had excess abdominal fat faced notably higher risks than those with overweight alone, making the case for a more complete picture of obesity in clinical practice.
BMI has long been the go-to tool for measuring obesity, but a major new study suggests it's leaving a lot of risk on the table. Researchers analyzed nearly 180,000 UK Biobank participants over roughly a decade and found that combining BMI with central obesity measures — specifically waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) — painted a far more accurate picture of who's at risk for chronic disease and multimorbidity (having two or more long-term conditions).
The biggest takeaway? Adults who were overweight and had high central obesity faced significantly greater risks than those with overweight alone — a group that standard BMI-based screening might miss entirely. Hypertension was the most common first chronic condition across all weight categories, with rates climbing from 11.1% in normal-weight individuals to 26% in those with general and central obesity combined.
Why it matters: Millions of "overweight" patients are currently screened using BMI alone — a metric that can miss dangerous abdominal fat accumulation. Adding a simple waist measurement to routine assessments could help clinicians catch at-risk patients earlier and intervene before chronic conditions pile up.
