Should race affect BMI guidelines? Doctors are split

BMI is a quick, cheap way for doctors to estimate body fat and screen for conditions like heart disease and diabetes. But medicine has long known that BMI is problematic and unnuanced. By using it, groups of people have fallen through the cracks and conditions have been caught late. So, some doctors want to add nuance – to consider race when using BMI. But using race in medicine comes with its own problems. So what’s the way forward? To find out, we talk to Katie Wu, a science writer at The Atlantic.

Read more of Katie’s reporting on BMI and race.

Interested in more science health stories? Email us your question at [email protected].

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org. 

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy