title: Metabolically healthy obesity from childhood to adulthood - Does weight status alone matter?
abstract: Up to 30% of obese people do not display the "typical" metabolic obesity-associated complications. For this group of patients, the term "metabolically healthy obese (MHO)" has been established during the past years and has been the focus of research activities. The development and severity of insulin resistance as well as (subclinical) inflammations seems to play a key role in distinguishing metabolically healthy from metabolically non-healthy individuals. However, an internationally consistent and accepted classification that might also include inflammatory markers as well as features of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is missing to date, and available data - in terms of prevalence, definition and severity - are heterogeneous, both during childhood/adolescence and during adulthood. In addition, the impact of MHO on future morbidity and mortality compared to obese, metabolically non-healthy as well as normal weight, metabolically healthy individuals is absolutely not clear to date and even conflicting. This review summarizes salient literature related to that topic and provides insight into our current understanding of MHO, covering all age spans from childhood to adulthood.
authors.affiliation: Leipzig University Medical Center, IFB Adiposity Diseases, University of Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: susann.blueher@medizin.uni-leipzig.de.
authors.forename: Susann
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Blüher
authors.affiliation: Technical University Dresden, Department of Prevention and Care of Diabetes, Germany; Paul Langerhans Institute Dresden, German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schwarz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007333:Insulin Resistance; D009765:Obesity / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D057285:Precision Medicine
keywords: Adulthood; Childhood; Insulin resistance; Metabolically healthy obese (MHO); Obesity