BMI: a broken reed

Rogier van Bakel has some concerns about the continued misuse of the BMI as if it actually related to real world people:

Now, what tool do you think the researchers behind this new study used to arrive at their conclusion? Why, the Body Mass Index, of course. The same Body Mass Index that the Mayo Clinic team called "badly flawed," adding that "a more accurate gauge should be developed." The Mayo scholars drew upon no fewer than 40 studies, covering a quarter of a million people.

[. . .]

The AP story glosses over all that. Reporter Alicia Chang swallows the old party line hook, line, and sinker. She never mentions that the Body Mass Index has been debunked — nay, demolished — explicitly by the Mayo team just last week, and implicitly by the Centers for Disease Control last year. She basically tells dissenters to shut up by asserting that there is "little room for denial that a few extra pounds is [sic] harmful."

Really? In my book, there's little room for denial that science writers of Ms. Chang's ilk ought to be be doing something better fitted to their talents. Burger-flipper, maybe? I'll have mine with extra cheese.

I've written a couple of posts about this in the past: here, here, and here.