PhD Candidate Jeffrey Hunger Appears in UCSB's "The Current"
New research conducted by PhD candidate Jeffrey Hunger under the supervision of Dr. Brenda Major suggests that BMI is an inaccurate measure of health.
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"According to Jeffrey Hunger, a doctoral student in UCSB’s Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, and a co-author of the paper, BMI is a deeply flawed measure of health. “In the overweight BMI category, 47 percent are perfectly healthy,” he said. “So to be using BMI as a health proxy — particularly for everyone within that category — is simply incorrect. Our study should be the final nail in the coffin for BMI.”
Using data from the most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the scientists analyzed the link between BMI — calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by the square of the person’s height in meters — and several health markers, including blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol. The results showed that more than 2 million people identified as “very obese” by virtue of having a BMI of 35 or higher are, in reality, healthy; that's about 15 percent of Americans so classified. The research also revealed that more than 30 percent of those with BMIs in the “normal” range — about 20.7 million people — are actually unhealthy based on their other markers."
