Body Mass Index

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Body Mass Index For Test

The Body Mass Index Test or BMI test is generally done to correlate the general body mass in scale of height which serves as a vague means to estimate the adiposity of the body. The BMI test can easily be done by using general calculation though it solely depends on the accuracy of the data obtained from it. Generally the BMI index is suitable for recognizing trends within sedendary or overweight individuals.

The unit for BMI is kg/m2. BMI is calculated by following way:

BMI= Weight (Kg)/ Height2 (m2)

The BMI test is done to find out how much an individual's body is departed from the normal or desirable weight of a person. The weight mainly indicates the body fat or adipose tissue though other factors like muscularity also effects the BMI. The particular BMI values use to demarcate the categories like underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese and morbidly obese. The CDC and WHO sets an ideal value fore BMI. BMI lesser than 18.5 is for underweight people and more than 30 is for overweight people. The BMI value more than 30 indicates obesity and more than 40 is for fatally obese people. Only the BMI value in between 18.5 to 25 is for normal people. This range of BMI is applied for the adult people only and is not the predictive of the health.

The US National Health and Nutrition Examination survey of 1994 indicates that fifty nine percent of American men and forty nine percent of American Women are overweight or obese i.e. have BMI more than 25. Extreme obesity or the BMI more than 40 is found in two percent of men and four percent of women. There are also many males and females who are underweight. The medical practitioners say that anything in between 18.5 to 20 is the lowest weight. The underweight can have various causes. A BMI around 15 usually indicates starvation while a BMI of 17.5 or less than it is regarded as anorexia nervosa.

BMI test is different for the children than the adults. It is calculated as the same way as in the case of adults. In case of children the BMI is compared with that of other children of the same age. There is no threshold for overweight and underweight but the BMI percentile allows comparison among the children of same age and sex. A BMI value lesser than 5th percentile suggests underweight and above 95th percentile is considered overweight. Children who have BMI between 85th to 95th percentile are said to have the risk of becoming overweight.

Though the BMI tests have international standard value but it is seen that there is variation from one country to another country. Thus the BMI values were lowered for the people of many countries specially in south east Asia. Thereby the cut off value of normal BMI in South East Asian body type is from 18.5 to 22.9. Bmi test is used by WHO as a standard test though it can not be useful in health evaluation.

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