Body mass index - BMI

BMI , formerly chosen the Quetelet index, is a measure for indicating nutritional status in adults. Information technology is defined as a person'southward weight in kilograms divided by the foursquare of the person's meridian in metres (kg/m2). For example, an adult who weighs 70 kg and whose meridian is i.75 chiliad will accept a BMI of 22.9.

seventy (kg)/i.752 (m2) = 22.9 BMI

For adults over 20 years old, BMI falls into one of the following categories.

Tabular array ane. Nutritional condition

BMI Nutritional status

Below 18.five

Underweight

xviii.5–24.9

Normal weight

25.0–29.ix

Pre-obesity

xxx.0–34.ix

Obesity class I

35.0–39.9

Obesity course Two

To a higher place 40

Obesity class III

The BMI ranges are based on the effect excessive body fatty has on disease and death and are reasonably well related to adiposity. BMI was adult as a gamble indicator of disease; equally BMI increases, so does the risk for some diseases. Some mutual conditions related to overweight and obesity include: premature death, cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, some cancers and diabetes.

BMI is too recommended for use in children and adolescents. In children, BMI is calculated as for adults and then compared with z-scores or percentiles. During babyhood and adolescence the ratio betwixt weight and pinnacle varies with sexual practice and historic period, and then the cut-off values that determine the nutritional status of those aged 0–19 years are gender- and historic period-specific. The cut-off points of the 2006 BMI-for-age reference for children aged 0–5 years for the diagnosis of overweight and obesity were set as the 97th and the 99th percentile, respectively. For those aged five–19 years, overweight is defined as a BMI-for-age value over +1 SD and obesity as a BMI-for-age value over +2 SD.

History

BMI is very like shooting fish in a barrel to measure and calculate and is therefore the almost ordinarily used tool to correlate risk of health problems with the weight at population level. It was developed by Adolphe Quetelet during the nineteenth century. During the 1970s and based especially on the data and report from the Seven Countries study, researchers noticed that BMI appeared to exist a practiced proxy for adiposity and overweight related issues.

Similar whatsoever other measure it is not perfect because it is only dependant on peak and weight and information technology does not accept into consideration different levels of adiposity based on historic period, concrete activity levels and sex. For this reason it is expected that it overestimates adiposity in some cases and underestimates it in others.

Other measures, such equally waist circumference (WC), tin complement BMI estimates. Clan betwixt WC and health risks is not an like shooting fish in a barrel task and should exist done scientifically using proper techniques.