Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32128581›Full record

ReviewEndocrine reviews2020

Metabolically Healthy Obesity.

Matthias Blüher

Abstract readComparative StudyReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Endocrine reviews, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 596 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
596citing papers in PubMed, 8 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

596 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Obesity-Related Coagulation Activation in Adolescents and Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026
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  7. Validity of non-traditional measures of obesity compared to total body fat across the life course: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025
    Pooled it
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  9. Trial
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  15. Beyond Deterministic Fetal Programming: Intrauterine Exposures and the Multifactorial Origins of Adiposity.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026
    Review
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536 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Matthias BlüherMedical Department III - Endocrinology, Nephrology, Rheumatology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany and Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research, Helmholtz Zentrum München, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Obesity contributes to reduced life expectancy, impaired quality of life, and disabilities, mainly in those individuals who develop cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, and cancer. However, there is a large variation in the individual risk to developing obesity-associated comorbid diseases that cannot simply be explained by the extent of adiposity. Observations that a proportion of individuals with obesity have a significantly lower risk for cardiometabolic abnormalities led to the concept of metabolically healthy obesity (MHO). Although there is no clear definition, normal glucose and lipid metabolism parameters-in addition to the absence of hypertension-usually serve as criteria to diagnose MHO. Biological mechanisms underlying MHO lower amounts of ectopic fat (visceral and liver), and higher leg fat deposition, expandability of subcutaneous adipose tissue, preserved insulin sensitivity, and beta-cell function as well as better cardiorespiratory fitness compared to unhealthy obesity. Whereas the absence of metabolic abnormalities may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in metabolically healthy individuals compared to unhealthy individuals with obesity, it is still higher in comparison with healthy lean individuals. In addition, MHO seems to be a transient phenotype further justifying therapeutic weight loss attempts-even in this subgroup-which might not benefit from reducing body weight to the same extent as patients with unhealthy obesity. Metabolically healthy obesity represents a model to study mechanisms linking obesity to cardiometabolic complications. Metabolically healthy obesity should not be considered a safe condition, which does not require obesity treatment, but may guide decision-making for a personalized and risk-stratified obesity treatment.

Indexed as

AdiposityCardiometabolic Risk FactorsDiabetes Mellitus, Type 2HumansInsulin ResistanceMetabolic SyndromeObesityObesity, Metabolically Benign

Identifiers

PMID32128581
PMCPMC7098708

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.