AMA urges doctors to move beyond BMI for healthy weight assessment.
The American Medical Association (AMA) has advised doctors to pay less attention to body mass index (BMI) in determining if a patient is at a healthy weight, saying the measure does not predict disease risk equally well across racial and ethnic groups. The influential physician group's annual meeting in Chicago voted to adopt a new policy that says BMI should be just one factor in determining whether a patient is at a healthy weight. Other measures such as body composition, belly fat, waist circumference, and genetic factors are also important, the AMA said.