Clinical Assessment of People With Obesity: Focus on Adiposity-Related Multimorbidity

Obesity is a chronic complex disease with deleterious effects on multiple organs and systems through a process called lipotoxicity. Obesity is commonly associated with a range of systemic comorbidities, including cardiovascular diseases, obstructive sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, osteoarthritis, and depression. Unfortunately, these conditions can be overlooked in the clinical setting, yet early detection and intervention of obesity-related comorbidities can lead to significantly improved health outcomes and well-being. An important consideration for clinicians is that obesity is the root cause and its associated comorbidities are downstream conditions. This perspective may help prioritize the management of obesity in the clinical setting. Adopting this clinical approach to treating obesity may help to improve or resolve several related conditions simultaneously rather than treating each condition as an isolated unassociated disease. This comprehensive review is based on the published literature on PubMed and Google Scholar and summarizes the latest recommendations and guidelines from international associations when diagnosing multimorbidity associated with adiposity and can be a valuable resource for diagnosing and managing obesity in the primary care setting.