Body Mass Index  ( BMI )

K MODELS Home Page

This page contains background information about Body Mass Index. 

Our original K MODELS Blog post from 2006 is below.  We still stand by these comments:

Having been reading the debate on 'Skinny' models at the excellent Supermodels.nl forum , it started us thinking about this whole topic. We started by putting together some links to information at a KMODELS BMI page.


Our initials observations are:

1. As obesity increases, the BMI of the population increases. What is considered normally thin today, will be considered abnormally thin tomorrow.

2. Different ethnic groups have different BMI ranges. A cut off BMI (less than 18) will affect some ethnic groups more than others.

3. Before making a fixed cut off point, organisers might wish to consider if they are opening themselves up to claims of racial discrimination.

4. Most progressive societies aim not to stigmatise individuals. The aim normally is to treat individuals as individuals, and if needed refer the individual for health advice. Most industries will use a confidential Occupational Health service. Organisers might wish to consider if a fixed cut off point is likely to lead to stigmatisation of an individual and an infringement of their Human Rights.

We welcome discussion on these or other points.

 

 

Model Health Inquiry Report  

"We do not believe a focus on BMI provides the way forward. The panel¡¯s expert advisers on eating disorders have stated that BMI is not an accurate method of determining health, particularly in a physically atypical group, which models represent, and its use may worsen eating disorders among models."

  

Fashioning a Healthy Future

The Report of the Model Health Inquiry.
September 2007

Feasibility Study Report 2008 

 
Model Health Inquiry   The Model Health Inquiry was established by the British Fashion Council  in response to concerns about the health of models on the catwalks at London Fashion Week.

 

   http://www.modelhealthinquiry.com/ 
Council of Fashion Designers of America Health Initiative   Models who are identified as having an eating disorder should be required to seek professional help in order to continue modeling. And models who are receiving professional help for an eating disorder should not continue modeling without that professional¡¯s approval.

 

   CFDA HEALTHI NITIATIVE 2007 
Madrid fashion week, one of Spain's most prestigious shows, is banning underweight models on the basis of their body mass index (BMI).     UN health experts recommend a BMI of between 18.5 and about 25, and some models may fall well below the minimum.  The Spanish Association of Fashion Designers has decided to ban models who have a BMI of less than 18.  13 September 2006

 

   news.bbc.co.uk 

www.timesonline.co.uk 

www.nytimes.com 
Italy's fashion capital, Milan, has announced a new catwalk code of conduct to protect young models vulnerable to anorexia and exploitation. 

 

 The move follows the ban slapped on so-called skinny models by the Spanish government earlier this month.  The new code was launched as the city marked the start of Milan fashion week and will take effect in February.  23 September 2006 

 

 http://news.bbc.co.uk
Increasing BMI over time Average Body Mass Index (BMI) a weight-for-height formula used to measure obesity, has increased among adults from approximately 25 in 1969 to 28 in 2002. 3

Adult men and women are roughly an inch taller that they were in 1960, but are nearly 25 pounds heavier on average as well. The average weight for men aged 20-74 years rose dramatically from 166.3 pounds in 1960 to 191 pounds in 2002, while the average weight for women the same age increased from 140 pounds in 1960 to 164,3 pounds in 2002. 3

3 Mean Body Weight, Height, and Body Mass Index, United States 1960-2002. Advance Data No. 347. October 2004. (PHS 2005-1250). www.cdc.gov

 

 http://news.ucanr.org 
Obesity over the life course.

Mizuno T, Shu IW, Makimura H, Mobbs C.

   Obesity in middle-aged humans is a risk factor for many age-related diseases and decreases life expectancy by about 7 years, which is roughly comparable to the combined effect of all cardiovascular disease and cancer on life span. The prevalence of obesity increases up until late middle age and decreases thereafter. Mechanisms that lead to increased obesity with age are not yet well understood, but current evidence implicates impairments in hypothalamic function, especially impairments in the ability of hypothalamic pro-opiomelanocortin neurons to sense nutritional signals. The rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity at all ages in the past decade suggests that, in the next two or three decades, diseases associated with obesity, especially diabetes, will begin to rise rapidly. Indeed, these trends suggest that for the first time in modern history, the life expectancy of people in developed societies will begin to decrease, unless the rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity can be reversed.

 

 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A Potential Decline in Life Expectancy in the United States in the 21st Century

S. Jay Olshansky, Ph.D., Douglas J. Passaro, M.D., Ronald C. Hershow, M.D.,et al

 

   Forecasts of life expectancy are an important component of public policy that influence age-based entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Although the Social Security Administration recently raised its estimates of how long Americans are going to live in the 21st century, current trends in obesity in the United States suggest that these estimates may not be accurate. From our analysis of the effect of obesity on longevity, we conclude that the steady rise in life expectancy during the past two centuries may soon come to an end.   http://content.nejm.org 

 
Obesity in ethnic minorities - BMI varies with ethnicity Among children, where obesity is a predictor of future health problems among the general population, obesity was relatively high among Black African, Caribbean and Pakistani boys (42%, 39% and 39%) and Black African and Caribbean girls (42% and 40%). Within the general population, 30% or boys and 31% of girls are classed as overweight or obese.

23% of men and of women in the general population were obese (body mass index greater than 30 (kg/m2)). With the exception of Black Caribbean (25%) and Irish (27%) men, men from minority ethnic groups had markedly lower obesity prevalence rates than those in the general population. Prevalence was highest in Black African (39%), Black Caribbean (32%), and Pakistani (28%) women, and lowest among Chinese women (7.6%)

 

 http://www.ic.nhs.uk
UK Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 Under the Race Relations Act, it is unlawful to discriminate against anyone on grounds of race, colour, nationality (including citizenship), or ethnic or national origin. All racial groups are protected from discrimination.

 

 http://www.cre.gov.uk 
Human Rights Act and European Convention on Human Rights Article 14: Prohibition on Discrimination

The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.

Article 14 covers discrimination on all the grounds set out in the article (sex, race, colour etc.) However, the list is open-ended. This is clear from the fact that the article refers to ¡®other status¡¯. Some other grounds for discrimination are now clearly accepted as coming within the scope of Article 14, for example discrimination on the basis of someone¡¯s sexual orientation. What is not clear is how far further grounds for discrimination have to be linked to a personal characteristic or whether it is just necessary for someone to show that they have been treated differently from someone who is in a relevantly similar situation

 

 http://www.yourrights.org.uk 
Trend Data on BMI in England Adults Obesity:
•No significant change in the proportion of adults who were overweight, though there was a marked increase in the proportion who were obese. The proportion who were categorised as obese (BMI over 30) increased from 13.2% of men in 1993 to 23.6% in 2004 and from 16.4% of women in 1993 to 23.8% in 2004.

 

 http://www.ic.nhs.uk 
Health Survey for England 2004

Among boys and girls aged 2-15, the proportion who were obese increased between 1995 and 2004, from 11 per cent in 1995 to 19 per cent in 2004 among boys, and from 12 per cent in 1995 to 18 per cent in 2004 among girls.  

The same pattern was apparent among boys aged 2-10 between 1995 and 2004, with an increase in the proportion that were obese, (10 per cent to 16 per cent). There was a different pattern for girls aged 2-10, with no statistically significant increases in the proportion overweight (14 per cent in 2004) or obese (12 per cent in 2004) in this period.

In boys aged 11-15, as with younger boys, there was an increase in the proportion that were obese between 1995 and 2004 (14 per cent to 24 per cent). There were increases in this period among girls aged 11-15 who were overweight (14 per cent to 19 per cent), and obese (15 per cent to 26 per cent).

 

 http://www.ic.nhs.uk 

Body mass index

 

 Body mass index (BMI) or Quetelet Index is a statistical measure of the weight of a person scaled according to height. It was invented between 1830 and 1850 by the Belgian polymath, Adolphe Quetelet during the course of developing "social physics".

 

 http://en.wikipedia.org
Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, US Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person¡¯s weight and height. BMI provides a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people and is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems.

 

  http://www.cdc.gov 
Changes in the distribution of body mass index of adults and children in the US population

K M Flegal and R P Troiano

 National survey data show increases in mean body mass index (BMI) and in the prevalence of overweight and obesity for adults and children in the United States, indicating a change in the distribution of BMI.

For all sex-age groups, there was increasing skewness with a greater shift in the upper part of the distribution so that, within each group, the heaviest subgroup was heavier in NHANES III than in prior surveys. For the youngest children, the lower part of the distribution showed virtually no change. With increasing age the whole distribution tended to shift upward slightly, suggesting an increase in BMI across the entire population.

 

 http://www.nature.com 

BMI distribution changes in adolescent British girls

E Georgiades1, J J Reilly2, E Stathopoulou3, A M Livingston1 and Y P Pitsiladis1

 

 Childhood and adolescent obesity in the UK reached epidemic proportions during the 1990s.1,2 Studies on the obesity epidemic to date, however, have focused simply on prevalence, without considering the nature of changes in the body mass index (BMI) distribution, changes in the variability of BMI with age, or how BMI changes may have differed between subgroups within the population.2,3 For example, it is unclear whether the increase in obesity was the result of changes across the entire population, or whether these changes were concentrated in a subgroup of more susceptible individuals.3 To our knowledge, few other epidemiological studies have addressed this issue, and there are no British data currently available. The aim of the present study was to assess changes in the distribution of BMI in an affluent sample of adolescent English girls over a 10 year period, during which time overweight and obesity prevalence increased markedly in the English paediatric population.1,2 http://adc.bmjjournals.com 

 

 

 

 

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