CLASSIFICATION OF CLINICAL AND PRE-CLINICAL OBESITY IN OUTPATIENTS

Resumo

Obesity is a major public health problem, especially due to its association with increased cardiovascular risk (CVR). Although body mass index (BMI) is widely used for diagnosis, it has limitations in stratifying CVR. Consequently, a new classification of obesity has been proposed, based not only on BMI but also on clinical, metab olic, and functional parameters, allowing for a more comprehensive assessment of the disease’s impact. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess CVR according to the classification of preclinical and clinical obesity in outpatients. This is an ongoing observational study that includes obese patients of both sexes, aged 30 to 65 years, who are treated at the specialty outpatient clinic of the University of Marília (UNIMAR). Participants are classified as having preclinical or clinical obesity according to criteria proposed by Rubino et al. (2025), based on clinical, laboratory, and functional data. CVD risk is estimated using the Global Risk and PREVENT scores. To date, a preliminary analysis of the first patients included has been conducted, and the partial results are presented here. Six patients, with a mean age of 51.4 ± 11.5 years, were preliminarily evaluated. Of these, five were classified as clinically obese and only one as preclinically obese. LDL -cholesterol levels averaged 99.8 mg/dL, ranging from 54 to 135 mg/dL, while the mean fasting blood glucose was 100.6 mg/dL, with values ranging from 81 to 123 mg/dL. Due to the small number of patients classified as having preclinical obesity to date, it has not yet been possible to perform comparative analyses between the groups. However, difficulty was observed in identifying obese patients without associated metabolic, clinical, or functional abnormalities, which may reflect the high prevalence of cardiometabolic impairments in this outpatient population. Although the low frequency of individuals with preclinical obesity limits comparative analyses, it raises the hypothesis that obese outpatients often already exhibit associated metabolic and clinical consequences. The study is ongoing to expand the sa mple and better evaluate the relationship between the new classification of obesity and cardiovascular risk.