# Changes to Obesity and Central Obesity

**URL:** <https://forums.snomed.org/t/changes-to-obesity-and-central-obesity/1028>\
**Category:** Briefing Notes\
**Tags:** briefing-note, information\
**Created:** [February 26, 2026, 9:55am UTC](https://forums.snomed.org/t/changes-to-obesity-and-central-obesity/1028 "2026-02-26T09:55:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![echeetham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c0e974/32.png) [@echeetham](https://forums.snomed.org/u/echeetham)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2026, 1:00pm UTC](https://forums.snomed.org/t/changes-to-obesity-and-central-obesity/1028/2 "2026-02-28T13:00:43Z")

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I appreciate this note is offered ‘for information’, however I have a few questions:

a. If (i) “…Obesity is diagnosed on the basis of **excess adiposity** …” and (ii) SI are [a long way through consulting on a novel mechanism](https://forums.snomed.org/t/proposal-to-move-129453003-deficiency-of-attribute-from-unapproved-to-approved/678) that will support “…modelling physiological state disorders representing **excesses of substance or cell types** …”, what is the reason for not using this new mechanism to model ‘obesity’ (if seen as an ‘excess’ in number and size of fat cells)?

b. leaving aside a long-standing and more general concern regarding the interprets/has\_interpretation modelling pattern, why are SI recommending the use of _ **property-less** _ observables as the targets for the ‘interprets’ aspect of the proposed solution? The suggested ‘Interprets = Body fat’ component is silent on what ‘property’ of the body fat is determined to be ‘excessive’? ‘Interprets = Distribution of body fat’ does offer the word ‘distribution’ as a possible property, but it is not clear what values such a property should take and whether ‘excessive’ is therefore a valid value.

c. Will any of the concepts discussed be published as sufficiently defined? The query…

\<\< 404684003 | Clinical finding |: {363714003 | Interprets | = \<\< 248300009 | Body fat observable |, 363713009 | Has interpretation | = \<\< 260378005 | Excessive |}

…returns a small number of released concepts, notably 248302001 |Excess subcutaneous fat| and its descendants. Would SI now expect these to classify as kinds of 414915002 |Obese (finding)|, and if so is this the intended outcome?

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