Body Mass Index
Adolphe Quetelet (1796-1874) promoted the concept of ‘the average man’. He used the Gaussian distribution to summarize the characteristics of populations.
In 1832, he concluded that, other than after birth and at adolescence, “the weight increases as the square of the height”.
Since the early 1970’s Quetelet’s Index has been promoted as the Body Mass Index (BMI), a measure of obesity.
BMI = Weight (Kg) / Height (m)2
A BMI calculator is available at the GlobalRPh website.
Reference
Eknoyan G. Adolphe Quetelet (1796-1874) – The average man and indices of obesity. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2008; 23: 47-61.
