Abstract
Session presented on Saturday, November 7, 2015 and Sunday, November 8, 2015:
Rising obesity rates have a significant impact on morbidity, mortality and subsequent delivery of health services globally. Therefore accurate assessment of individual weight status is vital (Carpenter et al. 2013). Although, frequently used in clinical practice and research, the ability of the body mass index (BMI) to accurately assess obesity in individuals has been much criticised. Raising awareness among nursing staff of the limitations of BMI is important. By understanding the various inadequacies, the use of BMI as an assessment tool for obesity, and thereby a proxy measure of metabolic risk (Tchernof & Despres 2013), nurses will be able to apply the scale with discretion to determine a truer assessment of health risk for the individual. From a literature search (CINAHL, Medline and PubMed) three themes that emerged. That BMI had limited applicability due to: an inability to distinguish percentage body fat from total weight; reduced sensitivity in the intermediate ranges of the scale and an inability to differentiate location and type of adiposity. Based on these three limitations, this review documents how obesity assessment outcomes in practice can be incorrect, specifically across different ethnic, gender and lifespan groups. While consensus was not reached in the literature to cease its use in practice, several authors promote amendments to ranges and/or the inclusion of other anthropometric measures to increase detection rates. However, recommending a change to practice is beyond the scope of this review.
Sigma Membership
Non-member
Type
Poster
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
N/A
Research Approach
N/A
Keywords:
Body Mass Index, Obesity, Body Composition
Recommended Citation
Impey, Sinead, "The limitations of body mass index (BMI) as an obesity assessment scale and the implications for practice: A nursing perspective" (2016). Convention. 353.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/convention/2015/posters_2015/353
Conference Name
43rd Biennial Convention
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Conference Year
2015
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.
All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
The limitations of body mass index (BMI) as an obesity assessment scale and the implications for practice: A nursing perspective
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Session presented on Saturday, November 7, 2015 and Sunday, November 8, 2015:
Rising obesity rates have a significant impact on morbidity, mortality and subsequent delivery of health services globally. Therefore accurate assessment of individual weight status is vital (Carpenter et al. 2013). Although, frequently used in clinical practice and research, the ability of the body mass index (BMI) to accurately assess obesity in individuals has been much criticised. Raising awareness among nursing staff of the limitations of BMI is important. By understanding the various inadequacies, the use of BMI as an assessment tool for obesity, and thereby a proxy measure of metabolic risk (Tchernof & Despres 2013), nurses will be able to apply the scale with discretion to determine a truer assessment of health risk for the individual. From a literature search (CINAHL, Medline and PubMed) three themes that emerged. That BMI had limited applicability due to: an inability to distinguish percentage body fat from total weight; reduced sensitivity in the intermediate ranges of the scale and an inability to differentiate location and type of adiposity. Based on these three limitations, this review documents how obesity assessment outcomes in practice can be incorrect, specifically across different ethnic, gender and lifespan groups. While consensus was not reached in the literature to cease its use in practice, several authors promote amendments to ranges and/or the inclusion of other anthropometric measures to increase detection rates. However, recommending a change to practice is beyond the scope of this review.
Description
43rd Biennial Convention 2015 Theme: Serve Locally, Transform Regionally, Lead Globally.