BMI and Its Relation to Body Composition, Adolescence and Ethnicity: General Considerations
1118.ris
—
Octet Stream,
2 kB (2,261 bytes)
The Body Mass Index (BMI) is frequently used to evaluate an individuals' nutrional state, with a special focus on obesity. The vailidity of BMI is based on the good correlation it presents with corporal fat and mainly internal fat, which in turn is associated to the risk factor for developing chronic disease. However, despite its wide use, many studies have reported a poor relationship between BMI and percentage of fat. Various authors have demonstrated that BMI fails to detect a great number of obese subjects. In children and adolescents, the vailidity of BMI as an index of fatness has not been carefully examined or extensively studied. Futhermore, BMI does not distinguish between fat mass and lean body mass, thereby hindering the differentiation between overweight due to excess fat and hypertrophy of muscular mass, as in the case of athletes. Additionally, there is strong evidence that athnic origin and the phase of the individual's life can affect the BMI and fat percentage relationship. IN this sense, some researchers have questioned whether the BMI cutoff points for obesity (30 kg/m2) and overweight (25 kg/m2) currently use in the United States and in European countries are appropriate for use in Asian populations. In this chapter, several of the questions involving BMI, such as: the accepted reference and the cutoff points; the relationship with other methods of evaluating corporal fat; ethnic origin; adolescence; and revision of the cutoff points for Asians will be discussed in the light of a breif revision of the literature and the results of two recent articles (Sampei et al., 2001; 2003) [1,2].1
CHAP
Body Mass Index: New Research
Sampei, Miriam A.
Sigulem, Dirce Maria
2005
91
1594542821
1118