The body mass index (BMI), or Quetelet index, is a measure for human body shape based on an individual’s mass and height.
Devised between 1830 and 1850 by the Belgian polymath Adolphe Quetelet during the course of developing “social physics”,[2] it is defined as the individual’s body mass divided by the square of their height – with the value universally being given in units of kg/m2.
†
† The factor for UK/US units is more precisely 703.06957964, but that level of precision is not meaningful for this calculation.
BMI can also be determined using a table[3] or from a chart which displays BMI as a function of mass and height using contour lines, or colors for different BMI categories. Such charts can easily allow two different sets of units of measurement to be used, which is often useful.[4]
The BMI is used in a wide variety of contexts as a simple method to assess how much an individual’s body weight departs from what is normal or desirable for a person of his or her height.There is however often vigorous debate, particularly regarding at which value of the BMI scale the threshold for overweight and obese should be set, but also about a range of perceived limitations and problems with the BMI.
Despite a wide range of other, differently calculated, ratios having been proposed,[5] none have yet been as widely adopted.
The Term Paper on Obesity: Body Mass Index And Weight
... measure this disease. The Body Mass Index – The BMI The BMI is a measure that combines the weight and the height according to the following ... Of course there is much variation between individuals. Some can have quite a high BMI and not recognise any problem. Others can ... measure the fat content of the body. It provides a simple measure of weight per unit volume and takes us back to ...
UsageEdit
While the formula previously called the Quetelet Index for BMI dates to the 19th century, the new term “body mass index” for the ratio and its popularity date to a paper published in the July edition of 1972 in the Journal of Chronic Diseases by Ancel Keys, which found the BMI to be the best proxy for body fat percentage among ratios of weight and height;[6][7] the interest in measuring body fat being due to obesity becoming a discernible issue in prosperous Western societies. BMI was explicitly cited by Keys as being appropriate for population studies, and inappropriate for individual diagnosis. Nevertheless, due to its simplicity, it came to be widely used for individual diagnosis.
‘BMI’ provides a simple numeric measure of a person’s thickness or thinness, allowing health professionals to discuss overweight and underweight problems more objectively with their patients. However, BMI has become controversial because many people, including physicians, have come to rely on its apparent numerical authority for medical diagnosis, but that was never the BMI’s purpose; it is meant to be used as a simple means of classifying sedentary (physically inactive) individuals, or rather, populations, with an average body composition.[8] For these individuals, the current value settings are as follows: a BMI of 18.5 to 25 may indicate optimal weight, a BMI lower than 18.5 suggests the person is underweight, a number above 25 may indicate the person is overweight, a number above 30 suggests the person is obese.
For a given height, BMI is proportional to mass. However, for a given mass, BMI is inversely proportional to the square of the height. So, if all body dimensions double, and mass scales naturally with the cube of the height, then BMI doubles instead of remaining the same. This results in taller people having a reported BMI that is uncharacteristically high compared to their actual body fat levels. In comparison, the Ponderal index is based on this natural scaling of mass with the third power of the height. However, many taller people are not just “scaled up” short people, but tend to have narrower frames in proportion to their height. Nick Korevaar (a mathematics lecturer from the University of Utah) suggests that instead of squaring the body height (an exponent of 2, as the BMI does) or cubing the body height (an exponent of 3, as the Ponderal index does), it would be more appropriate to use an exponent of between 2.3 and 2.7[9] (as originally noted by Quetelet).
The Essay on Mass Communication People Verbal Person
Communication is more than just one person speaking and another listening. There are 3 components, them being Verbal, Non-verbal and Body language. In this essay I am going to explain briefly what I understand about them. Communication is an exchange of information from one individual or group to another, whether in speech or through another medium. (Giddens 1997). Verbal is the smallest part of ...
(For a theoretical basis for such values see MacKay.[10])
