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Obesity and autopsy reports

International Journal of Obesity volume 33, page 181 (2009)Cite this article

How do pathologists depict obesity in descriptions of cadavers, and how often do they conclude that obesity was the main cause of death or a contributory factor to the death? These are questions raised following the publication of the NCEPOD report into the quality of coronial autopsies ‘The Coroner's Autopsy: Do we deserve better?’.1

The period of study was one week in May 2005, covering England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands; all non-homicide coronial autopsy reports were requested. A total of 1691 coronial autopsy reports were submitted for evaluation. Only 877 of the 1691 autopsy reports (52%) included both body height and weight, so that the body mass index (BMI) could be calculated. There were 139 adults (⩾16 years), who had a BMI of ⩾30 (highest BMI=69), and these cases form the basis of the following results.

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References

  1. National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death. The Coroner's Autopsy: Do we deserve better?. NCEPOD: London, 2006.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death, London, UK

    H Cooper & S Lucas

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  1. H Cooper
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  2. S Lucas
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Correspondence to H Cooper.

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Cooper, H., Lucas, S. Obesity and autopsy reports. Int J Obes 33, 181 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2008.199

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