Validation of the 2024 European Association for the Study of Obesity diagnostic criteria: A comprehensive assessment of obesity‐related mortality risks

AIMS: Obesity is a global public health challenge, and the traditional WHO-proposed diagnostic criteria based on body mass index (BMI) often fail to fully assess related health risks. The European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) has proposed new criteria that combine BMI, waist-to-height ratio (WtHR) and complications to more accurately evaluate obesity-related health risks. MATERIALS AND METHODS: , WtHR ≥0.5 and the presence of 12 obesity-related complications. The associations between obesity and mortality were assessed using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox proportional hazards regression analyses. Mediation analysis was conducted to explore potential mechanisms by which obesity impacts patient prognosis. RESULTS: , WtHR ≥0.5 and any of the top five complications (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, CVD, metabolic syndrome and ageing) as diagnostic criteria, which had the highest C-index (0.612), obesity remained an independent prognostic factor for poor overall survival (HR and 95% CI for all-cause mortality: 1.41 [1.26, 1.58], HR for CVD mortality: 2.08 [1.61, 2.68] and HR for cancer mortality: 1.32 [1.06, 1.65]). CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the prognostic value of the new obesity diagnostic criteria proposed by EASO, suggesting that these criteria offer a more accurate assessment of obesity-related health risks.