Moving Beyond BMI

Regular readers of these pages will recall my previous posts on the Edmonton Obesity Staging System (EOSS), which uses a 5 point ordinal scale (0 to 4) to rate how sick patients are rather than just how big they are.

This morning, I am presenting this concept and some preliminary data that we have on this system at the 4th International Congress on Prediabetes and the Metabolic Syndrome, in Madrid Spain.

This conference focuses on various aspects of preventing and treating the ‘cardiometabolic’ risk factors that I blogged about earlier this week.

While this is clearly important, EOSS considers not just the ‘cardiometabolic’ risk or consequences of excess weight but also the mental and functional problems that these patients may encounter.

Thus, EOSS provides a far more ‘holistic’ understanding of the potential impact of excess weight on an individuals health and functioning – a concept that goes well beyond simply treating numbers on a scale.

Readers may wish to refer to a previous post EOSS for more information.

AMS
Madrid, Spain

Sharma AM, & Kushner RF (2009). A proposed clinical staging system for obesity. International journal of obesity (2005), 33 (3), 289-95 PMID: 19188927