Many thanks to all who replied to my query on common
classification of body mass index. Here is a summary:
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Tim Cole, Paed. Epid. & Biostats, Institute of Child Health,
London wrote:
Are talking about children or adults? In adults the usual
classification is normal weight 20-25, overweight 25-30,
obese 30+.
In children there is the further problem of age, which
affects BMI a lot. The Americans use the 85th centile of an
American BMI reference as their cut-off for overweight, and
the 95th centile for obesity. This is also the WHO
definition. In the UK we have a BMI reference which includes
the 91st and 98th centiles, and these are often used to
define overweight and obesity respectively.
However internationally people prefer to use their own BMI
reference, so the US/WHO recommendation is not universally
accepted. I have recently
published a paper in the BMJ
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/320/7244/1240
suggesting a new set of cut-offs that ought to be acceptable
internationally.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ghasem Yadegarfar, School of Epidemiology, Manchester
University wrote:
A current and usual classification of BMI is <20, 20-21,
22-24, 25-29, 30 & over. For more details see
ToftSorensen H. et al. “Relation between weight and length
at birth and body mass index in young
adulthood: cohort study” BMJ 1997;315:1137 (1November)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Greg Phillpotts, Deputy Director of Statistics, Department
of Health England wrote:
You may find the information from the Health Survey for
England of use. Results on Body Mass for 1998 are given at
http://193.32.28.83/stats/hse98bm.htm, and the Website has
the full report.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr Carole A. Cull, University Research Lecturer, Diabetes
Trials Unit, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford wrote:
In what context - the usual classification here is
<25 kg/m2 = normal weight
25-30 kg/m2 = overweight
30-35 kg/m2 = obese
>= 35 kg/m2 = morbidly obese
But it all depends upon the ethnic groups - asians have
lower BMI for similar risk profiles.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jochen Weber, PhD
Dept. Biometrics
IMFORM GmbH
Birkenweg 14, D-64295 Darmstadt
++49-6151-8280-23 (phone)
++49-6151-8280-10 (fax)
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