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Body mass index (BMI) uses a person’s height and weight to assess whether a person is overweight or underweight. People with high BMI are at a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases which include ischaemic heart disease, ischaemic stroke, hypertensive disease, colon cancer, post-menopausal breast cancer, endometrial cancer, and osteoarthritis.
This study estimates the burden of disease attributable to excess bodyweight, or overweight and obesity, by age and sex, in South Africa for 2000 using the comparative risk assessment methodology developed by the WHO. View the results. (pdf format, 404 kb)
A BMI of less than 18.5 would be considered underweight, a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 would be considered a healthy body weight. Overweight is catergorised as 25 to 29.9 and obesity is a BMI of 30 and above.
High BMI is one of the cluster of risk factors that contribute to chronic diseases. Read more about research and policy of the chronic diseases of lifestyle in South Africa, the global burden and the newly formed 3FOUR50 Health Alliance to reduce the burden of these diseases.
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