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

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.