Obesity: Avoid using BMI alone when evaluating patients, say US doctors’ leaders

Doctors should no longer use only body mass index (BMI) when assessing patients for overweight or obesity, the American Medical Association (AMA) decided at its annual meeting in Chicago.1The new policy criticised the use of BMI because body shape and composition differ across race and ethnic groups, sex, gender, and age, and because the measure had been used for racist exclusion.AMA past president Jack Resneck Jr said at the meeting on 14 June, “There are concerns with the way BMI has been used to measure body fat and diagnose obesity, yet some physicians find it to be a helpful measure in certain scenarios. It is important for physicians to understand the benefits and limitations of using BMI to determine the best care for their patients.”The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that nearly 42% of American adults were obese in 2020.2In January this year the American Academy of…
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