A new study shows that 54 million Americans whose BMI classes them as overweight and obese are in perfect health according to cardiometabolic measures, while 21 million whose BMI puts them in the normal category are unhealthy.
Altogether, say the authors, an estimated 75 million adults in the US are misclassified as either healthy or unhealthy when BMI is used as the sole health indicator.
The study provides more evidence to support the idea that a person's body mass index (BMI = weight in kg divided by height in m2) is a flawed measure of health.
In spite of this, BMI continues to be used as a yardstick for determining health status. Many employers use it to calculate workers' health care costs, note the researchers behind the new study, who report their findings in the International Journal of Obesity.