New body index aims to move beyond BMI and works for babies too

Body Mass Index (BMI) has long been used in public health and clinical settings as a simple tool to classify an individual's physical status based on their height and weight.

Originally developed in the 1830s by Belgian mathematician Adolphe Quetelet, BMI was designed to describe the characteristics of the average man rather than to assess an individual's health, and it did not account for age, sex, ethnicity or body composition. ...