UK experts’call to review BMI system

Experts in UK have raised questions about the credibility of a measurement programme which could be incorrectly classifying school children as overweight.

Researchers said the system which classifies the youngsters needs to be standardised after they found children’s height and weight varies depending on the time of day measurements are taken.

A study, conducted by resear­chers at the University of Worcester, measured the weight and height of Year Six school children to analyse the impact that time of day has on their body mass index category.

They found that children’s BMI increased in the afternoon, due to a decrease in height throughout the day. And in girls, weight also increased during the day.

Their results found that, of 74 pupils measured, three children were re-categorised between morning and afternoon – two children who would have been labelled as of a healthy weight in the morning were overweight in the afternoon and one child moved from the overweight to very overweight category.