Health Issue: Obesity

Assessing Health Risks Associated with Overweight and Obesity

BMI is just one indicator of potential health risks associated with being overweight or obese. For assessing someone’s likelihood of developing overweight- or obesity-related diseases, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute guidelines recommend looking at two other predictors:

• The individual’s waist circumference (because abdominal fat is a predictor of risk for obesity-related diseases).
• Other risk factors the individual has for diseases and conditions associated with obesity (for example, high blood pressure or physical inactivity).

For more information about the assessment of health risk for developing overweight- and obesity-related diseases, visit the following Web pages from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute:

• Assessing Your Risk
• Body Mass Index Table
• Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults