Study finds BMI, despite flaws, is useful estimate of body fat in children

The body mass index has long been slammed as a blunt instrument for evaluating health, even more so with new obesity drugs changing the conversation about weight and well-being. Now a study reasserts BMI’s value as a screening tool in children to detect high levels of body fat, a measure tied to greater risk of cardiovascular disease, early atherosclerosis, and a high BMI in adulthood.

BMI is an equation that divides a person’s weight in kilograms by their height in meters squared. For children, growth curves from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are used to track a child’s trajectory, rather than assign them to one of the four categories familiar to adults (underweight, healthy weight, overweight, obesity). For people of all ages, BMI is a proxy for body fat, whose best measurement involves dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), an expensive tool impractical in primary care. 

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