Delegates at the American Medical Association (AMA) Annual Meeting of the House of Delegates adopted a policy aimed at clarifying how body mass index (BMI) can be used as a measure in medicine.
The new policy was part of the AMA Public Health and Science Council report that evaluated the problematic history with BMI and explored alternatives. The report also outlined the harms and benefits of using BMI and noted that BMI is an imperfect way to measure body fat in multiple groups since it does not take into account differences between races/ethnic groups, sexes, genders, and ages. Given the report’s findings, the new policy supports the AMA in educating physicians about BMI issues and alternative measures for diagnosing obesity.
Under the newly adopted policy, the AMA recognizes problems with using BMI as a measure because of its historical harm, its use for racist exclusion, and because BMI is primarily based on data collected from previous generations of non-Hispanic white populations.
Due to the significant limitations associated with the widespread use of BMI in clinical settings, the AMA suggests that it be used in conjunction with other valid risk measures, including, but not limited to, measures of visceral fat, body adiposity index, body composition, fat mass. relative, waist circumference and genetic/metabolic factors . The statement noted that BMI is significantly correlated with the amount of fat mass in the general population, but loses predictability when applied at the individual level.
"There are numerous concerns regarding the way BMI has been used to measure body fat and diagnose obesity, but some doctors find it a useful measure in certain scenarios," said AMA immediate past president Jack Resneck. Jr. MD. "It is important for physicians to understand the benefits and limitations of using BMI in clinical settings to determine the best care for their patients."
