Global Courant
The American Medical Association (AMA) said Wednesday it will advise doctors to pay less attention to body mass index (BMI) when determining whether a patient is at a healthy weight, saying the measure does not predict disease risk as well for racial and ethnic groups. groups.
BMI, a ratio of weight to height, has long been used to define underweight, “normal” weight, overweight, obese and morbidly obese, despite mounting evidence that it is an inaccurate predictor of health risk on an individual level.
At the annual meeting of the influential Chicago physician group, members voted for a new policy that states that BMI should be just one factor in determining whether a patient is at a healthy weight. Other measures such as body composition, belly fat, waist circumference and genetic factors are also important, according to the AMA.
There have been “problems with the use of BMI as a measure because of its historical harm[and]its use for racial exclusion,” the AMA said.
In its announcement on Wednesday, the AMA acknowledged that the BMI scale is primarily based on data from white people, while body shape and composition vary across racial and ethnic groups, genders and age groups.
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An overweight woman sits on a chair in New York’s Times Square on May 8, 2012. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo)
Global Courant
Weight problems have long been attributed to poor lifestyle decisions, such as overeating due to lack of willpower.
Attitudes about proper weight, and in particular the causes of obesity, are beginning to change along with new approaches to management, including effective, new weight loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy.
At the other extreme, the AMA said, “Too much emphasis on physical thinness is just as detrimental to a person’s physical and mental health as obesity.” It asks doctors to help patients “avoid dieting obsessions and develop balanced, individualized approaches to find the body weight that is best for each of them.”
The AMA’s new policy also says that BMI should not be used as the sole criterion for denying reimbursement by insurance.
