New classification system: researchers want to classify Obesity as a distinct disease

High blood pressure, an increased risk of cancer, Diabetes, Obesity, also known as obesity or obesity increases disease risk for more than 60 result.

Nevertheless, experts worldwide are still divided over whether Obesity should count as a distinct disease.

Scientists at the Obesity Society, the leading technical society for the exploration, treatment and prevention of obesity, therefore propose a new classification system.

The new System should Obesity be classified as a disease and was recently presented in the journal ‘Obesity’.

BMI does not reflect the effects of Obesity

The German obesity society (DAG) defines Obesity as an above-average increase in body fat, which goes beyond the normal range-

The standard is determined by this Body-Mass-Index – also, the diagnosis of obesity is based exclusively on BMI.

This may, however, be seen only as a rough guideline, because stature and the individual composition of fat and muscle tissue will only be considered minimal.

So far, this value could also give no indication of the impact of excessive obesity on the health of a affected Person. Also, the currently used ICD-Code (International Classification of Diseases) gives possibility not only to diagnose obesity on the basis of excessive calories.

This, according to the Obesity Society is not medically reasonable and reflects moreover, there is no emergence or development of obesity.

Obesity should be classified

According to the researchers, the Obesity Society, the new System should aim at a comprehensive basis for clinical Intervention, and individualized Treatment and a personalized, coordinated medical approach is based.

The new classification is supposed to cover four areas – the pathological physiology, the Body Mass Index (BMI), as well as the presence and Severity of complications.

So that Doctors and the Affected parties can have more control over what is taught and why.

Dr. W. Timothy Garvey, Professor of nutritional Sciences and Director of the Diabetes Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, explains to EurekAlert!’ the advantages of the new system.

“The coding reflects what we treat, why we treat it and, hopefully, will give impetus to better access of patients to evidence-based treatments.”

Individual diagnoses should be supported

As a new Umbrella term for diseases based on Obesity, the scientists obesity-based chronic disease (ABCD).

This diagnostic term includes both the pathophysiology (the study of pathological changes in the body, as well as the doctrine of the functioning of the body), as well as the clinical impact of obesity as a chronic disease, and to support the clinical efforts of individual diagnoses with a higher precision shall be used.

The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) and the European Association for the Study of obesity (EASO) took over the concept of ABCD already.

“It is of crucial importance, the intensity of the therapy to the severity and to the pathophysiology of the disease to adapt,” stresses Karl Nadolsky, Chairman of the national network for food and obesity at AACE.

Neuet approach requires a high level of education

Dr. Jamy Ard, Professor of epidemiology and prevention at Wake Forest School of Medicine, sees the main difficulty in the implementation of the new system is the fact that obesity has so far been diagnosed using the simple BMI-based diagnosis under the.

He adds: “This more advanced approach requires a high level of education and public Relations, to modify the behavior of physicians.”

Gema Frühbeck, who is first author on the topic of ABCD, explained: “Worldwide, there is increasing recognition that the BMI and other simple measures of obesity reflect the complexity of the disease or the circumstances of the patient and effect.

The proposal of a classification system is a very welcome and obesity is explained as an obesity-based chronic disease. It is time that obesity occurs in the Era of precision medicine.”

Sources

• World Health Organization: International Classification of Diseases (ICD) Sheet Information, retrieved on 25.02.2020 https://www.who.int/classifications/icd/factsheet/en/
• German obesity society: health Obesity is a problem, archived from the original on 25.02.2020 https://adipositas-gesellschaft.de/index.php?id=8
• Obesity: Proposal for a Scientifically Correct and Medically Actionable Disease Classification System (ICD) for Obesity, retrieved on 25.02.2020 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.22727
• Semantic Scholar: The ABCD of Obesity: An EASO Position Statement on a Diagnostic Term with Clinical and Scientific Implications, retrieved on 25.02.2020 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-ABCD-of-Obesity:-An-EASO-Position-Statement-on-Frühbeck-Busetto/c760fc313fff152c6d3d4ae1d7431ef92cddacc9

Antonia Hagedorn

*The contribution of “New classification system: researchers want to Obesity published is classified as a distinct disease” of FitForFun. Contact with the executives here.