Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Dec 1;8(12):e2549124.
doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.49124.

Body Mass Index and Anthropometric Criteria to Assess Obesity

Nora M Al-Roub  1 , Devesh Malik  2 , Mohammed Essa  3   4 , Yuan Lu  5   6 , Huanhuan Yang  6 , Erica S Spatz  5   6 , Harlan M Krumholz  5   6 , Kamil F Faridi  5   6
Affiliations

Body Mass Index and Anthropometric Criteria to Assess Obesity

Nora M Al-Roub et al. JAMA Netw Open. .
No abstract available

Plain language summary

This cross-sectional study estimates US obesity prevalence using newly proposed anthropometric criteria.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Lu reported receiving grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, Sentara Foundation, and Novartis outside the submitted work. Dr Krumholz reported having stock options in Element Science and identifeye; receiving personal fees from F-Prime for an advisory role; being a cofounder of Hugo Health, Refactor Health, and Ensight-AI; being an unpaid cofounder of medRxiv and openRxiv; and receiving grants from Novartis, Pfizer, Kenvue, and Janssen through Yale University outside the submitted work. Dr Faridi reported receiving grants from the NHLBI, National Institutes of Health during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.

Figures

Figure.
Figure.. US Prevalence of Obesity Across Body Mass Index (BMI) Categories With Incorporation of Anthropometric Criteria
Obesity definition and elevated anthropometric measures (waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, and waist-to-height ratio) were based on criteria cited by the 2025 Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology Commission. Alternative obesity definitions were used for Asian adults (eTable 2 in Supplement 1). A waist-to-height ratio >0.5 was considered a criterion for obesity in the primary analysis and an alternative waist-to-height ratio >0.6 was also evaluated. All prevalence estimates were survey weighted and age standardized using data for US adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. BMI was calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Rubino F, Cummings DE, Eckel RH, et al. Definition and diagnostic criteria of clinical obesity. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2025;13(3):221-262. doi: 10.1016/S2213-8587(24)00316-4 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Accessed March 4, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.html
    1. Aryee EK, Zhang S, Selvin E, Fang M. Prevalence of obesity with and without confirmation of excess adiposity among US adults. JAMA. 2025;333(19):1726-1728. doi: 10.1001/jama.2025.2704 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Savva SC, Lamnisos D, Kafatos AG. Predicting cardiometabolic risk: waist-to-height ratio or BMI—a meta-analysis. Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes. 2013;6:403-419. doi: 10.2147/DMSO.S34220 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ashwell M, Gunn P, Gibson S. Waist-to-height ratio is a better screening tool than waist circumference and BMI for adult cardiometabolic risk factors: systematic review and meta-analysis. Obes Rev. 2012;13(3):275-286. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2011.00952.x - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources