Information on Obesity / Adiposity
Obesity itself is no disease, if, however, it exceeds a certain extent it is called adiposity and is labeled a disease (WHO, 1997). Depending on the body fat distribution obesity at a certain extent is to be regarded as pathological as it entails a significantly increased risk of contracting accompanying diseases.
Definition: The Body-Mass-Index (BMI) is the most common measurement to define obesity or adiposity. It is defined as the individual's body weight (kg) divided by the square of his or her height (m²). A BMI above 25 indicates overweight or obesity and a number above 30 indicates adiposity.
In addition to the BMI the waist circumference is used for assessing the risk. It should not exceed 88 cm in women or 102 cm in men.
Causes: Obesity and adiposity have many causes, often a genetic susceptibility can be found together with a negative balance of calorie intake and consumption by excess nutrition and lack of physical activity.
Incidence and Prevalence: Approximately every third adult German citizen is overweight. Whereas there is a higher prevalence of overweight males among the younger population it can be observed that above 40 years of age the proportion of overweight females prevails. It is particularly noticeable that the rates of overweight children have been continuously increasing over the past years (Data of the National Consumption Study II, 2007).
Consequences: Adiposity is associated with various diseases, particularly diabetes mellitus type 2, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, as well as joint and back pains; it requires a concept of long-term medical care and treatment. It is beyond dispute that obesity and adiposity burden the health care system with increasing costs.
In the frame of the KORA-Studies the associations of obesity with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes have been already researched for years. Further studies showed that excessively adipose persons cause high costs in hospital and doctors’ visits and by sick leaves.