Title
Body mass index misclassification of obesity among community police officers
Document Type
Article
Peer Reviewed
1
Publication Date
11-1-2011
Volume
59
Journal, Book or Conference Title
AAOHN journal
PubMed ID
22017190
DOI
10.3928/08910162-20111017-01;
Abstract
Occupational health nurses are at the forefront of obesity assessment and intervention and must be aware of potential inaccuracies of obesity measurement. The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of obesity among a sample of 84 male police officers 22 to 63 years old and determine the accuracy of body mass index (BMI) in estimating obesity compared to body fat percent (BF %). BMI identified 39.3% of the participants as obese, compared to 70.2% by BF %. BMI misclassified normal-weight officers as obese or overweight and obese officers as normal 48.8% (n = 41) of the time. The two misclassified groups had similar average BMIs but significantly different BF %. BMI was not an accurate measure of obesity among adult males. BMI underestimated the true prevalence of obesity and could represent a missed opportunity for early intervention and disease prevention.
Keywords
Adult, Anthropometry/methods, Body Mass Index, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity/classification/epidemiology/nursing, Occupational Health Nursing/methods/standards, Police/statistics & numerical data, Prevalence, Residence Characteristics, Risk Factors, Young Adult
NLM Title Abbreviation
Aaohn J
URL
http://ir.uiowa.edu/nursing_pubs/1702
