both conditions matter for current health status and even more as predictors of medical conditions in the future overweight and obesity were not retained as primary indicators since they refer to health outcomes that are not necessarily severe but since they are known to be important risk factors for serious illnesses including hypertension high cholesterol diabetes cardiovascular diseases respiratory problems asthma musculoskeletal diseases arthritis and many others they were retained as secondary indicators a caveat on the use of indicators of overweight and obesity is that the associations between these indicators the percentages of body fat and health risks may differ for some ethnic groups and populations