title: Obesity Paradox should not interfere with public health efforts.
abstract: The Obesity Paradox could result in confusing messages that derail beneficial environmental changes and lead to reduced efforts by physicians to provide healthy lifestyle treatment plans to their obese patients. The Obesity Paradox applies in the main to individuals who have a disease, and therefore observed associations with mortality illustrating the Paradox may be more susceptible to certain types of bias than would be found in healthy individuals. Although individualization of weight loss advice for patients with serious disease is appropriate in medical settings, this does not supplant the need for general efforts to prevent and treat obesity.
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA [2] Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: P T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Bradshaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Truesdale
authors.affiliation: Mayo Clinic, Endocrine Research Unit, Rochester, MN, USA.
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Jensen
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000401:mortality*
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