Two obesity definitions identified different disease risk groups
The definitions disagreed for 17.5% of All of Us participants and 29.1% of UK Biobank participants, with different links to later disease.
Our read
Populations- Studied:
- Cohort study of adults, against no obesity by either framework
- What changed:
- Against no obesity, EASO obesity showed elevated disease risk in one cohort, while Lancet-only obesity showed no increased risk
- The catch:
- Differences in baseline obesity-related complications between cohorts could confound comparisons: 50.5% versus 10.6%
- Why it’s aging research:
- It bears on staying healthy in midlife and later life.
Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Adults in the All of Us Research Program (313,019) and UK Biobank (502,233) were studied in a prospective observational analysis using body measurements and electronic health records. Researchers compared obesity definitions from the European Association for the Study of Obesity and the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology Commission.
The Lancet definition classified more people as having obesity. People classified by both definitions had the highest adjusted risks of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease in both cohorts, and of death in UK Biobank but not All of Us. Obesity under the European definition alone was linked to higher disease risk in All of Us, but not UK Biobank, and not to higher mortality in All of Us. Obesity under the Lancet definition alone was not linked to increased heart disease, stroke or kidney disease risk in either cohort.
Why it matters
Heart and kidney disease matter for health in later life. The authors suggested that obesity definitions may have important implications for assessing future disease risk.
Caveats
Differences in underlying health could have influenced the comparisons: baseline obesity-related complications affected 50.5% of All of Us participants versus 10.6% of UK Biobank participants. The conference abstract does not report risk estimates, leaving the size of the associations unclear.
The paper
Ciccarone Cntr for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease
AHA Scientific Sessions 2026 Abstract, Nov 2, 2026
Presented at AHA Scientific Sessions 2026, abstract 15137
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