Re:How the Idea of a ‘Normal’ Person Got Invented
by Retric on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @09:00PM
(#11171868)
It's interesting that Quetelet Index aka BMI is arguably 'wrong' as it's comparing volume of something with one dimension ^2 instead of one dimension ^3. There are reasons it's valuable in human health as square cube law scaling has negative consequences. Still, it's interesting just how 'old' that measurement is.
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Re:How the Idea of a ‘Normal’ Person Got Invented
by btilly on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @10:17PM
(#11172136)
The BMI is more right than wrong. The strength of a physical object varies with cross-area, so the strength of your heart varies as height squared. The amount of work it has to do varies as mass, which does tend to scale as height cubed.
The result is that height and heart disease are correlated. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25051127 for a random verification.
Re:How the Idea of a ‘Normal’ Person Got Invented
by Retric on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @10:42PM
(#11172230)
IMO it's a mixed bag. I agree it works for heart disease, obesity, etc. But, it's also used for anorexia where it seems like a poor fit.
Re:How the Idea of a ‘Normal’ Person Got Invented
by rdancer on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @10:25PM
(#11172168)
That's absolutely crazy how old it is.
From my very anecdotal perspective, BMI is only used when addressing obesity or anorexia as a first-order approximation, or rather illustration and a way to find out where you are in relation to peers of the same sex/height/age. Do other formulæ fare better in those use cases?
Re:How the Idea of a ‘Normal’ Person Got Invented
by paulsutter on Thursday February 25, 2016 @12:46AM
(#11172614)
Yes - this is exactly why tall people register as overweight according to BMI, even if skinny.