Body mass index changes: an assessment of the effects of age and gender using the e-norms method

• Published in: BMC medical research methodology Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 40 - 7
• Main Authors: Jabre, Joe F., Bland, Jeremy D.P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central 22.02.2021; BioMed Central Ltd; BMC
• Subjects: Age groups; Age Sex; Body Mass Index; Carpal tunnel syndrome; Data analysis; Diabetes; Diagnosis; E-norms; Ethics; Glucose; Health Sciences; Measurement; Medical research; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Medicine, Experimental; Methods; Normal Values; Obesity; Older people; Pathology; Patients; Research Article; Statistical Theory and Methods; statistics and modelling; Statistics for Life Sciences; Theory of Medicine/Bioethics; United Kingdom; United Kingdom > UK; Body Mass Index; Obesity; Age Sex; Normal Values; E-norms
• ISSN: 1471-2288; 1471-2288
• DOI: 10.1186/s12874-021-01222-z

Background To validate e-norms methodology in establishing a reference range for body mass index measures. A new method, the extrapolated norms (e-norms) method of determining normal ranges for biological variables is easy to use and recently was validated for several biological measurements. We aimed to determine whether this new method provides BMI results in agreement with established traditionally collected BMI values. Methods We applied the e-norms method to BMI data from 34,384 individuals and compared the ranges derived from this method with those from a large actuarially based study and explored differences in the normal range by gender, and age. Results The e-norms derived range of healthy BMI in adults is from 22.7 to 30.6, and showed that BMI is consistently higher in men than in women and increases with age, except in subjects aged 80–98 years in whom healthy BMI appears to be lower. Conclusions Our e-norms derived healthy BMI ranges agree with traditionally obtained actuarially based methods, supporting the validity and ease of use of our method.