Associations of obesity with co-morbidities in early adult life

In The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Yair Zloof and colleagues1 show that obesity in otherwise healthy adolescents was linked with increased risk of serious morbidity before the age of 25 years. They did this by analysing data from routine, but thorough, health examinations of more than 1·1 million Israeli women and men aged 17–21 years who were assessed for their suitability for military service. Participants were then closely monitored for onset of diseases through 2 years and 3 years of service, respectively. There were 23 347 cases of serious morbidity recorded over 2 534 873 person-years and incidence of serious morbidity increased across BMI groups in both sexes. The study linked 104 diseases to obesity, and grouped them according to the ICD-10 classification into 13 categories of which seven in each sex were significantly associated with obesity.