Thursday, April 9, 2009
More bad news for the BMI
You may remember, awhile back, the study which found BMI wasn't of much use for athletes and college-age folks. Well, new research finds that the BMI-- created mostly from data on whites-- isn't a great measurement of obesity for non-whites, either.
The article in the British Journal of Nutrition compared DXA measurements to BMI for white, African American, Hispanic, Asian and Asian-Indian men and women age 17-35 years. Here were some results:
--The DXA estimate of percent fat for African American women was 1.76% lower than in white women with the same BMI. So, assuming you trust the DXA as more valid, the BMI for obesity in African American women should be about 32, not 30 as it is for white women.
--For Hispanic, Asian and Asian-Indian women, the DXA of percent fat is higher by 1.65%, 2.65% and 5.98%, respectively, than for white women of the same BMI. Based on this data, the BMI threshold for obesity in Hispanic women should be 28, not 30.
--For African American men, DXA was 4.59% lower than it was for white men of the same BMI; for Asian-Indian men, it was 4.29% higher.
So the lesson here is, if you use a non-diverse sample to construct a measurement or screening tool, you limit its applicability. Hmm, sounds a little...obvious?
posted by Jessica Berthold at
2:17 PM
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