%0 Journal Article
%T Applications of BMI or BSI: Differences and Revisions According to Age and Height
%A Otto W. B. Schult
%A Ludwig E. Feinendegen
%A Stephan Zaum
%A Walton W. Shreeve
%A Richard N. Pierson Jr.
%J Journal of Obesity
%D 2010
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2010/647163
%X Validation of body-mass relationships requires a careful statistical analysis of data of normal weight individuals. BMI (ratio between body mass and square of body height) and BSI values (ratio between mass and cube of body height) have been calculated for 99 persons with ages between 1 day and 76 years. These BMI or BSI values have been used for least squares fits yielding mean BMI or BSI values, their variances (providing precision), and average deviations of individual BMI/BSI values from the BMI/BSI means. The latter allows limits to over- and underweight. For adults we found mean values of BSI of 12.36 and confirmed 21.7 for the mean BMI; but the BSI was 1.4 times more precise than the BMI. For children shorter than 1.3£¿m and younger than 8 years we found the BMI average of 15.9 and over-/underweight limits of 17.4/14.4 being significantly smaller than and incompatible with the recommended BMI values. 1. Introduction Overweight and obesity are serious health problems [1, 2] which have increased during the past decades [1, 3] in the US, in other ¡°Western¡± countries [4], and globally [5]. They tend to cause health damages with potentially immense expenditures [5, 6]. An appropriate definition of overweight and obesity is essential to the Public Health community for designing and monitoring interventions. Overt obesity can be recognized without measurement. However, proper assessment of moderate overweight is essential to targeting ¡°action¡± thresholds. Currently, the Body Mass Index BMI is used for defining overweight and obesity. The BMI, given in units kg/m2, has the dimension of an area density, the average value of which, for normal, healthy subjects, has so far been recommended as 21.7 [2, 6]. In the past, also the Broca formula [7] was used, a linear mass versus height relationship, which implies a linear density (kg/m), which may be relevant for describing a hair, but not a human body. The BMI has been recommended for use among all age groups from childhood through adulthood [2]. Analyzing the relationship between BMI and adiposity, Revicki and Israel state ¡°... there exists considerable error associated with the prediction of body fat, using different BMIs¡± [8]. Overweight is defined by a BMI between 25.0 and 29.9 [2] and underweight by a BMI below 18.5. People with BMI greater than 30.0 are categorized as obese. ¡°Such terminology is useful¡­yet remains imperfect¡± [2]. As ¡°¡­ many physicians and patients find it¡± (the BMI) ¡°difficult to interpret¡± [3], a useful body mass relationship, indeed, should have dimensions relevant to the human body, a
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobe/2010/647163/