doctors stressed Experts – Experts in India are calling for abdominal obesity to be considered a new vital sign in Asian Indians. An editorial by Amarta Ghosh and Anoop Mishra, published in the journal Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research and Reviews, emphasizes the need to measure waist circumference in all patients.

The editorial said the progressive increase in obesity and abdominal obesity in India represents a significant and emerging metabolic crisis, contributing to the increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and related cardiometabolic disorders. Asian Indians develop abdominal obesity despite a relatively normal BMI, a phenotype associated with high insulin resistance, ectopic fat deposition and early onset of metabolic diseases.

Therefore, BMI is an inadequate measure of obesity, it said, shifting the focus from generalized obesity to abdominal obesity, from reliance on BMI to prioritizing waist circumference and related indices, including waist circumference-to-height ratio, for more accurate cardiometabolic risk stratification in routine clinical practice. Data from the National Family Health Survey – 5 revealed that abdominal obesity affects about 40% of women and 12% of men.

Significantly, abdominal obesity is no longer limited to urban or affluent populations, it is increasing in rural areas and increasingly affecting lower and middle socioeconomic groups, the editorial highlights.