{"doi":"10.12944/crnfsj.1.1.07","title":"Pitfalls of Using Body Mass Index (BMI) in Assessment of Obesity Risk","abstract":"<jats:p>This review focuses on the potential drawbacks of using body mass index (BMI) which are often overlooked in the assessment of overweight or obesity risk, with special emphasis on the use of other equally important anthropometric measurements such as waist circumference (WC), waist-hip-ratio (WHR) and skin-fold thicknesses. There have been inconsistencies in findings when using BMI as an indicator of obesity risk. These have arisen mainly due to gender, age and ethnic differences in body fat composition and distribution coupled with increased reliance on self-reported values of weight and height. Since BMI remains the most widely used tool to screen obesity risk in many studies, establishment of gender-, age- and ethnicity-based cut-offs of BMI, tailored to specific populations, will significantly enhance public health policies and increase the success rates of obesity intervention programs. The use of other anthropometric measures such as WC and WHR in conjunction with BMI is also highly recommended to assess abdominal obesity or other body-specific areas.</jats:p>","journal":"Current Research in Nutrition and Food Science Journal","year":2013,"id":619117,"datarank":0.611630616585858,"base_score":4.07753744390572,"endowment":4.07753744390572,"self_citation_contribution":0.611630616585858,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.611630616585858,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":58,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":621455,"name":"Rajesh Jeewon","orcid":"0000-0002-8563-957X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":590322,"name":"Trishnee Bhurosy","orcid":"0000-0003-2603-2839","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Pitfalls of Using Body Mass Index (BMI) in Assessment of Obesity Risk","abstract":"<jats:p>This review focuses on the potential drawbacks of using body mass index (BMI) which are often overlooked in the assessment of overweight or obesity risk, with special emphasis on the use of other equally important anthropometric measurements such as waist circumference (WC), waist-hip-ratio (WHR) and skin-fold thicknesses. There have been inconsistencies in findings when using BMI as an indicator of obesity risk. These have arisen mainly due to gender, age and ethnic differences in body fat composition and distribution coupled with increased reliance on self-reported values of weight and height. Since BMI remains the most widely used tool to screen obesity risk in many studies, establishment of gender-, age- and ethnicity-based cut-offs of BMI, tailored to specific populations, will significantly enhance public health policies and increase the success rates of obesity intervention programs. The use of other anthropometric measures such as WC and WHR in conjunction with BMI is also highly recommended to assess abdominal obesity or other body-specific areas.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":4.07753744390572,"endowment":4.07753744390572,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"19910364","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2015378711","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":3.9423,"citation_percentile":0.92883576,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2014,"count":4},{"year":2015,"count":2},{"year":2016,"count":6},{"year":2017,"count":3},{"year":2018,"count":2},{"year":2019,"count":4},{"year":2020,"count":3},{"year":2021,"count":8},{"year":2022,"count":4},{"year":2023,"count":9},{"year":2024,"count":7},{"year":2025,"count":6}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://doi.org/10.12944/crnfsj.1.1.07","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.12944/crnfsj.1.1.07","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"http://www.foodandnutritionjournal.org/volume1number1/pitfalls-of-using-body-mass-index-bmi-in-assessment-of-obesity-risk/","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.403.8014","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet","Body Composition Measurement Techniques","Nutritional Studies and Diet"],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":["Body mass index","Waist","Obesity","Overweight","Body volume index","Anthropometry","Medicine","Abdominal obesity","Classification of obesity","Waist–hip ratio","Demography","Ethnic group","Circumference","Gerontology","Environmental health","Fat mass","Internal medicine","Mathematics"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Good health and well-being"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-03T06:03:52.635487Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}