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Re:Life expectancy rise in rich countries slows down: took 3... by lolinder on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @08:52AM (#41858511)
> Both are appalling.

Both are also largely meaningless because they're based on BMI, which is literally just mass/height^2. No measure of percent body fat, no measure of any other aspect of health, just mass by the square of height.

If you're comparing the BMI of two countries with very similar gene pools it's not a bad point of comparison (though the raw number still doesn't tell you much without more context about build types), but when you're comparing Australia to the US the gene pools of the non-European minority groups are sufficiently different to make BMI pretty worthless as a point of comparison for public health.

Re:Life expectancy rise in rich countries slows down: took 3... by pwillia7 on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @10:56AM (#41859800)
How do they even pretend that works when some South Asians are shorter and the Danes are so large? Are the Danish just 100% obese?

This says it's <20% there[1][2]

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_human_height_by_countr...

2: https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/33/3/463/7058153

Re:Life expectancy rise in rich countries slows down: took 3... by s1artibartfast on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @11:31AM (#41860254)
Height is factored in, albeit in a very simple way
Re:Life expectancy rise in rich countries slows down: took 3... by lolinder on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @11:52AM (#41860545)
Yeah, it's not height itself that's the problem, it's body shape. As just one example: some people have long torsos and short legs, others long legs and short torsos. Those two groups will have wildly different BMI curves even at similar health levels.
Re:Life expectancy rise in rich countries slows down: took 3... by s1artibartfast on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @01:41PM (#41861682)
BMI is a very crude measure. It is only useful in the extreme, and not particularly relevant for an individual. If you have a BMI of 40 you should think about losing weight, but exactly nobody need a composite number to know they are that fat. Similarly, you might have a normal BMI but an LDL of 300 or a strange lump on your thyroid. These things are vastly more important than your BMI