The Obesity Paradox in Cardiothoracic Surgery |Biomedgrid

The world health organization (WHO) define obesity as ‘'abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health''. Commonly, the body mass index (BMI) is used as a measure of whether someone is underweight (BMI <19 kg/m2), healthy weight (BMI 19-24 kg/m2), overweight (BMI 25-29 kg/m2), obese (BMI 30-39 kg/m2) and a BMI >40 kg/m2 considered as extreme obesity. There is ethnic variability which can affect the accuracy of BMI. For example, increased muscle mass in those of Afro-Caribbean ethnicity can increase BMI. It is therefore suggested that waist circumference measurement should be performed in addition to BMI to allow a more accurate assessment of cardiometabolic risk associated with obesity [1]. The latest WHO observatory data suggests that global obesity has nearly tripled from 1975 to 2016 [2]. More than 1.9 billion adults in 2016 were considered overweight with 650 million of these considered obese [2]. Moreover, 39% of adults aged 18 years and over were overweight with 13% considered obese in 2016 [2]. More significantly, these increases were not just restricted to ‘'Western'' developed countries, but there were also substantial increases seen in low-income and middle-income countries thus this global crisis being labelled a pandemic [2].