Obesity: epidemiology, diagnosis, complications

Big picture

Obesity is a chronic, relapsing, multifactorial disease characterized by excess adipose tissue that impairs health. For the Internal Medicine exam, obesity is important because it is not only “increased body weight”; it is a major driver of:

Insulin resistance → type 2 diabetes mellitus → metabolic syndrome → hypertension → dyslipidemia → atherosclerosis → fatty liver disease → sleep apnea → osteoarthritis → cancer risk.

The examiner usually wants four things:

1. Define obesity using body mass index.
2. Classify obesity severity.
3. Recognize android/visceral obesity as more dangerous than gynoid obesity.
4. List systemic complications.

WHO defines