Citing Racist Origins, American Medical Association Deemphasizes BMI

The American Medical Association announced it has adopted recommendations deemphasizing the use of  body mass index as a measurement in medicine. The group now recommends considering BMI along with other factors, including visceral fat, body adiposity index, body composition, relative fat mass, waist circumference and genetic/metabolic factors.

The AMA said it “recognizes issues with using BMI as a measurement due to its historical harm, its use for racist exclusion, and because BMI is based primarily on data collected from previous generations of non-Hispanic white populations.”

“There are numerous concerns with the way BMI has been used to measure body fat and diagnose obesity, yet some physicians find it to be a helpful measure in certain scenarios,” said AMA Immediate Past President Jack Resneck. {snip}

The body mass index uses a simple formula combining a person’s weight and height. A person with a body mass index between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered a normal weight. Those with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 are overweight, while those with a BMI of over 30 are considered obese.

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