Disclaimer:
Before you read the following, if you're going to be sensitive or offended by this post, just skip it, as it relates to my research and my personal experience regarding this issue that is important for all transgender and gender-diverse people.
Interestingly, BMI shows up in this week's tutorial and PowerPoint notes of my current degree studies. This is a serious issue that is misconstrued by the likes of health departments and also personal to me, as I was subjected to biased measures, and a surgery was declined based on these BMI requirements. My question is this. Why is this important for a person studying a psychology degree? Are prospective psychologists in a position to question a client's BMI? Thanks to our and other health departments, psychologists, and psychiatrists who accumulate clientele because of this flawed and biased practice. I fought the health system with Health and Disability Commission (HDC) and the Ministry of Health up to the Prime Minister of NZ. The only thing that this BMI calculation does is create severe mental distress and not only in the gender-diverse groups, but in the general population.
Here are a few facts I found through my research over the last 4 years:
My research on the BMI calculator: The BMI calculator was found to be flawed for the following reasons by the AMA- American Medical Association, the UKMA- the UK Medical Association (American Medical Association, 2023) and the research done by Yale University (Katella, 2023) and Harvard University (BMI a Poor Metric for Measuring People’s Health, Say Experts, 2022) in the USA.
Reasons:
The BMI calculator does not factor in the following: body fat weight vs body muscle weight, Skeletal weight vs body and internal organ weights, the difference between male/female body fat in transgender people. (fat redistribution?) internal organs weight vs body fat, body fat weight vs artificial implants, (in my case, my spinal implants and breast implant weight). Looking at these things, you can clearly see that I have been assessed under "generalised assumptions" based on misinformation and biased ideologies by whoever runs the circus that deals with this. So, this tells us a few things.
To start with, why the BMI calculator is wrong. A person with lots of body muscle and minimal body fat can have the same BMI as a person with obesity who has less muscle. BMI also varies (because average body fatness varies) among people of different ages and whether they are active or sedentary. That means it can be misleading in some cases.
Why can BMI measurements be misleading?
BMI is a surrogate measure of body fatness because it is a measure of excess weight rather than excess body fat. Factors such as age, sex, ethnicity, and muscle mass can influence the relationship between BMI and body fat.
Why is the BMI not a good indicator of overall health?
Why isn't BMI always the best measure of health? Generally speaking, the more body fat you're carrying, the higher your health risk. However, BMI cannot differentiate between body fat and muscle mass.
Why has MY BMI increased from 32 to 35.4?
I have been out of action for over four years since an accident at home where I fell and injured my L-rotator cuff. Still ongoing and problematic. For over 19 months now, I've been off work with a left leg injury I acquired at work. I am still running all over New Zealand for this test and that test, and no medical practitioner can or wants to take responsibility and sort this problem out. Been on ACC and kept inactive due to two injuries, how on heaven's earth can I reduce this BMI or lose weight that Health NZ is now using as an excuse, whereas the cause is their own medical departments and DHB's. This all seems to point to bureaucracy by those higher up who want to cut expenses to make them look politically good. NZ has a serious mental health problem, and Health NZ are driving it through these kinds of actions. Look at suicide statistics- When will it start coming down?
Just think about this.
The unethical use of BMI "The BMI can be traced back, rather surprisingly, to a famous Belgian. Adolphe Quetelet's interest in the emerging discipline of statistics in the mid-1830s saw him collect data on men's heights and weights at various ages". (Humphreys, 2010)
["When it was developed in the 19th century, the BMI formula was never intended as a measurement of health, especially the health of a diverse population. It wasn’t even created by medical experts"]. (“Is BMI Accurate? New Evidence Says No,” 2024)
The bottom line is this:
"Developed by a 19th-century astronomer as a population census tool, the BMI formula was never intended as a measurement of health". The history of BMI dates back to 1832. Adolphe Quetelet (1796-1874), a Belgian statistician, mathematician, and astronomer. A 200-year-old tool that was created by a Belgian astronomer, using 37 white only males, for purposes not relating to health. Then insurance companies adopted this tool and eventually some doctors who utilised it to hide their discriminatory attitudes ie. discriminate against fat people.
My question again: Why is this proven flawed practice still used, and why is it important for psychology? I will never use or discuss this with a client because they see me for mental health etc., and not for medical advice. Something to think about everyone.
References:
American Medical Association. (2023, June 14). AMA adopts new policy clarifying role of BMI as a measure in medicine. https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-adopts-new-policy-clarifying-role-bmi-measure-medicine
BMI a poor metric for measuring people’s health, say experts. (2022, October 28). News. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/bmi-a-poor-metric-for-measuring-peoples-health-say-experts/
Humphreys, S. (2010). The unethical use of BMI in contemporary general practice. British Journal of General Practice, 60(578), 696–697. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp10x515548
Is BMI accurate? New evidence says No. (2024, December 11). URMC Newsroom. https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/publications/health-matters/is-bmi-accurate
Katella, K. (2023, August 4). Why you shouldn’t rely on BMI alone. Yale Medicine. https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/why-you-shouldnt-rely-on-bmi-alone
Pray, R., & Riskin, S. (2023). The history and faults of the body mass Index and where to look next: a literature review. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.48230
Wpath. (2012). Standards of Care for the health of transsexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming people(7th Version). WPATH. https://www.wpath.org/publications/soc
My physician does not use BMI measurement as a tool here in Canada.
