Doctors call for a change in obesity diagnosis: BMI is no longer sufficient, and this would be the new indicator.

A new study has once again called into question the validity of the body mass index ( BMI ) as a primary tool for assessing health risk. This time, scientists have found that body fat percentage is a better predictor of both overall and cardiovascular mortality in young and old women.

This finding adds new arguments to a trend that is gaining increasing consensus in medicine: leaving BMI behind.

It's worth noting that obesity is a disease Argentina is no exception to. More than 6 out of 10 adults in the country are overweight, while the figures for children and adolescents are also grim . Furthermore, statistics have shown a worrying increase since the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the results of this research could be decisive. Traditional medicine—which consists of dividing weight by height squared—has already been questioned for its inability to differentiate between muscle mass and fat. Now, other, more accurate indicators are providing concrete evidence.

The study, published in the Annals of Family Medicine, analyzed data from 4,252 adults aged 20 to 49, taken from the National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2004.

In each case, BMI was compared with body fat percentage, measured using bioelectrical impedance devices in clinical controls. The researchers defined a pathological body fat percentage as any value greater than 25% in men and 44% in women.

Using these parameters, they found that people with elevated values ​​had up to a 78% higher risk of death in the following 15 years , and 2.6 times higher chances of dying from cardiovascular disease.

In contrast, BMI showed no statistically significant relationship with mortality , either overall or from cardiac causes. This reinforces the case for abandoning this method as the primary reference for diagnosing overweight or obesity.

The study authors also noted that bioelectrical impedance devices are inexpensive and accessible, which would facilitate their widespread use. They also emphasized that replacing BMI with body fat percentage would better guide treatment and prevention plans.