The association of body mass index with health outcomes: Causal, inconsistent, or confounded?

Eyal Shahar

Research output: Contribution to journalShort surveypeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

According to the definition of confounding in a causal diagram, the association of body mass index (weight (kg)/height (m)2) with health-related outcomes is almost always noncausal, attributable to confounding by weight and perhaps height. The same conclusion holds for any other deterministic derivation from weight and height. No causal knowledge is gained by estimating a nonexistent effect of body mass index.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)957-958
Number of pages2
JournalAmerican journal of epidemiology
Volume170
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2009

Keywords

  • Bias (epidemiology)
  • Body mass index
  • Causality
  • Confounding factors (epidemiology)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Epidemiology

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