Measuring Adiposity in Patients: The Utility of Body Mass Index (BMI) & Body Fat
BMI has been known to be unreliable for almost as soon as it was published, but people clinged to it because they could get some number with absolutely no education and only basic tools on the measuring side. You could do it in the jungle with a tape measure and a weighting board.<p>So the base reasonning was “a somewhat dummy number is better than no number at all”.<p>DXA is 100% better but requires trained personnel and expensive, advanced scanners. I’m not sure it’s a fitting upgrade of BMI…and if a subject can be thorougly scanned, can’t they also get more personal advice and actual assessment of what they are risk of (blood pressure ? heart disease ? diabetes ?) instead of some vague “you’re fat so you should lose weight, we’ll see how you’ll actually die once you’re thinner” ?