According to a UCLA study, the BMI is an inaccurate classification criterion.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – According to a new study published by UCLA, the BMI is an inaccurate classification criterion. The study shows evidence that the people that are labeled by their index of body mass as being overweight or obese are in fact healthy.
The results of the study were published by the UCLA psychologist, Janet A. Tomiyama in the International Obesity Journal. Her conclusions were that the BMI is an inaccurate classification criterion and that employers are charging high costs for health insurance because the companies use the BMI as a measure of determining a person’s health.
The index of body mass relies on a calculus formula. The weight of a person measured in kilograms is divided by the square of the individual’s height measured in meters. The CDC deems a healthy and normal BMI to be somewhere in between 18.5 and 24.9, the BMI of an overweight person is between 25 and 29.9 and the BMI attributed to an obese individual is higher than 30.
The problem is that this method of calculation is used to determine a person’s general health, and not just the weight. And since the BMI is an inaccurate classification criterion, people were often deemed to be overweight or even obese and cataloged as health risks. This made their health insurance policy more expensive.
Latest studies showed that people with a healthy and normal BMI can actually prove to be very unhealthy and overweight people, from the BMI point of view, were actually healthy or had no major health problems at the time when they were seen by a physician.
Tomiyama considers the BMI to be really terrible and crude because it has made obesity seems like a death sentence and has obligated people with a little extra weight to pay a little extra more to health insurance providers just because the BMI pointed them as being a health risk.
Recently the Commission for Equal Opportunity in Employment in the United States proposed a rule that would grant employers the right to penalize certain employees with fees that reach up to 30 percent of their total insurance cost if they don’t meet a number of 24 health criteria. Obviously, the criteria include a healthy and normal BMI. And since Tomiyama has established that the BMI is an inaccurate classification criterion, it only means that employees will pay more for no reason at all.
In order to determine whether or not BMI is an inaccurate classification criteria, Tomiyama and her team studied a sample of 40,420 Americans on the spam of 8 years. The volunteers were regularly checked by a physician who would look at blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin, glucose and C-reactive protein.
From a metabolic point of view, almost half the people considered overweighed by the BMI were healthy, and so were 29 percent of the individuals labeled as obese. On the other side of the coin, 30 percent out of the tested volunteers who showed a normal BMI ratio were found to have metabolic problems.
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Tara Hamilton
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