Surprise Surprise – Body Mass Index Tests Aren’t A Reliable Health Indicator

If you have had an ongoing medical condition or even just a check up recently, you’ll likely have had your height and weight taken in order to calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) which is often used to gauge your overall health. The BMI was created in the 19th century and has been a standard practice to measure health since 1995 when the World Health Organization (WHO) published what is now known to be the standard BMI criteria.

However, this year, practitioners are pushing back against the practice, stating that it’s not a reliable health indicator and more about our bodies should be taken into consideration.

Arguably, this is long overdue since the BMI test was initially created not to measure individuals but instead, to study health within specific populations. 

What BMI doesn’t account for

In an article for The Conversation, experts in exercise and endocrinology James King, David Stensel and Dimitris Papamargaritis discussed the issues with the BMI and how often it can be inaccurate for very healthy people.

They wrote: “BMI doesn’t account for body composition – the proportion of fat, muscle and bone a person has. This is important to know because excess body fat is what may increase our risk of certain health conditions.

“This means that people who are muscular, such as athletes, may have high BMI values despite having low body fat. This could lead to an incorrect assumption that they’re unhealthy.”

It doesn’t just end there, though. 

In disappointing but not surprising news, the BMI was created primarily using data from white populations. So while we’re often warned that a higher BMI number puts us at risk of diabetes, this isn’t actually true for many populations. For example, South Asian people are more likely to develop Type 2 Diabetes if they have a lower BMI score.

How is this being tackled?

The American Medical Association (AMA) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have both adopted policies that ensure that the BMI is not the sole indicator of patient health status.

AMA have committed to using this tool only, “in conjunction with other valid measures of risk such as, but not limited to, measurements of visceral fat, body adiposity index, body composition, relative fat mass, waist circumference and genetic/metabolic factors.”

Meanwhile, NICE has recommended that waist-to-hip ratio is used alongside BMI. 

These changes aren’t ideal and still don’t take into consideration health conditions, class, disability and far more vital factors but it’s at least a start.