What use is the BMI?
What use is the BMI?
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DOI：
10.1136/adc.2005.077339
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发表时间：
2006-04-01
影响因子：
5.2
通讯作者：
Cole, TJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hall, DMB;Cole, TJ
下议院肥胖问题特别委员会和美国的两个专家小组建议每年测量每个学童的身体质量指数（BMI），并将结果发送给家长。BMI与直接测量的总身体脂肪相关性足够好，以支持在匿名的基础上将其用作监测肥胖流行病处理进展的公共卫生工具。然而，BMI是肥胖的一个不完美的代表，因为BMI和体脂、心血管危险因素和长期健康结果之间的关系存在很大的个体差异。无论选择何种身体质量指数分界线来决定对父母的建议，身体质量指数偏高都需要进一步评估和解释，因此，专责委员会建议的将身体质量指数结果发送给父母的政策实际上是一项筛查计划。因此，它提出了一些困难，只应作为一项研究报告而不是作为公共政策加以执行。儿童肥胖症在世界范围内的流行是一个公共卫生问题，原因有二。首先，它与各种不良健康后果有关，包括2型糖尿病和心血管疾病。第二，在西方世界，它被认为是没有吸引力的，因此，对许多人来说，它是许多不快乐的原因。英国政府已经制定了到2010年“遏制儿童肥胖症上升”的目标。1对肥胖的关注引起了人们对身体质量指数（BMI）的极大兴趣，BMI是身体脂肪的方便指标，下议院健康特别委员会2建议：.在上学期间，儿童应每年在学校测量身体质量指数.测量结果应保密地寄回家给父母，并酌情附上关于生活方式的建议、后续行动和转介到更专门的服务机构.这一系统不仅可以查明已经超重或肥胖的儿童，但它可以针对那些体重指数在“正常”范围内的高端人群，以防止体重进一步增加。
The House of Commons Select Committee on obesity, and two expert groups in the USA, recommend that the body mass index (BMI) of every school child should be measured each year and the result sent home to the parents. The BMI correlates sufficiently well with direct measures of total body fat to support its use, on an anonymous basis, as a public health tool for monitoring progress in dealing with the obesity epidemic. However, the BMI is an imperfect proxy for obesity because there is much individual variability in the relationship between BMI and body fat, cardiovascular risk factors, and long term health outcomes. Whatever BMI cut offs are selected for determining the advice to parents, a high BMI calls for further evaluation and interpretation and the policy proposed by the Select Committee, to send BMI results to parents, is therefore in effect a screening programme. As such, it presents a number of difficulties and should be implemented only as a research study and not as public policy. The worldwide epidemic of childhood obesity is a public health problem for two reasons. First, it is associated with a variety of adverse health outcomes, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Second, it is perceived in the Western world as unattractive and for many individuals it is, therefore, the cause of much unhappiness. The UK Government has set a target of ‘‘halting the rise’’in childhood obesity by 2010. 1 Concerns about obesity have generated much interest in the body mass index (BMI) as a convenient indicator of body fat and the House of Commons Select Committee on Health2 recommended that:… throughout their time at school, children should have their Body Mass Index measured annually at school… The results should be sent home in confidence to their parents, together with, where appropriate, advice on lifestyle, follow-up, and referral to more specialised services… Not only would this system identify children who are already overweight or obese, but it could target those at the top end of the ‘normal’range of BMI to prevent further weight gain.