January 31, 2022 — Across four millenia, alchemists sought to purify common materials and transform them into gold. In a possibly similar quest, Zachary Ward and Steven Gortmaker wish to assure us they have a reliable method for correcting the errors in data on self-reported height and weight. In other words, it’s no big deal if we don’t have […]
January 20, 2022 — After four decades of agitation about childhood obesity it seems like we might safely assume that scientists can measure and track it with confidence. But it turns out that this is not exactly true. Why? Because of flaws in something called the BMI z-score. Body fat quite normally changes in children with age. What’s healthy […]
September 6, 2017 — When it comes to BMI, everyone is a hater. Even so, most people are content to keep using it as an easy number to screen adults for obesity. But for kids, everyone knows BMI just doesn’t work. In Pediatrics this month, Bill Dietz describes “widespread agreement” that BMI scores for kids with severe obesity are […]
May 27, 2017 — Is that electronic leash on your wrist really doing anything? Can you rely upon fitness trackers for good information? A pair of recent studies add to the reasons you might doubt it. Heart Rate, Yes; Calories Burned, No Researchers from Stanford tested seven fitness trackers and published their result in the Journal of Personalized Medicine. […]
