The BMI: Lack of basic epidemiology knowledge makes us all dumber

NHANES 1994 (not 2006 DEXA data) From Wikimedia Commons

This graph bothers me. The article from the New York Times bothers me more. For a long time I couldn’t figure out why. I’ve given talks on BMI, the history of the BMI and my practice of plastic surgery is permeated by the BMI. My opinion of the BMI has swung to both extremes—as a measurement that is junk, to a useful epidemiological tool, but not as a personal measurement, and now to something different entirely. I realized this because the graph bothered me; and the reason why it bothers me is because there is a fundamental construct problem with how the BMI is perceived; and when I say BMI, I mean the BMI cut-offs, because really, there is nothing wrong with dividing weights and heights. Read More...