BMI

Question 1

What is BMI?

Answer 1

a measurement derived from a patients height and weight to determine whether a patients weight is within the normal range

Question 2

How do we calculate BMI?

Answer 2

weight (kg) / height (M2)

units-kg/m2

Question 3

Why is BMI needed?

Answer 3

-estimate body fat
-determine overall fitness, and risk of developing chronic disease
-change in BMI can be used to measure deterioration or improvement in clinical condtions

Question 4

Describe the standing height method

Answer 4

-important to measure height accurately
-always use patients current height
-if patient is unable to stand, assess height by alternate method and record

Question 5

What items must patients remove for a correct height measurements?

Answer 5

-outer clothing
-shoes
-hair clips
-undone hair/ no braids
-orthopaedic brace

Question 6

How do we correctly measure height?

Answer 6

-feet together
-feet flat on the floor
-heels touching the back of plate
-straight legs
-buttocks against the wall
-scapula against wall
-arms loose at the sides

Question 7

How must the patients head be positioned when measuring height?

Answer 7

-with the lower margins of the orbit in the same horizontal plane as the external auditory meati (corner of eyes horizontal to ear)

Question 7

What are some alternatives to standing height?

Answer 7

-full arm span
-demi arm span
-ulna length

Question 7

How do we measure arm span?

Answer 7

-measure finger tip to finger tip
-mark on wall and measure distance between
-estimate standing height by dividing the measurment by 1.03 for males and 1.01 for women

Question 8

How do we measure demi arm span?

Answer 8

-outstretched arms, palms forward , from base of the middle finger to the sternal notch using a non stretch tape measure

women-height = (1.35 x demi span cm)+ 60.1

male height =(1.4x demi span cm) + 57.8

Question 9

How do we measure height using the ulna method?

Answer 9

-arm bent up across the chest preferably left side, palm flat across chest, fingers pointing to opposite shoulder

-length from point of elbow to mid point of prominent bone of the wrist using a tape measure

Question 10

How do we measure weight?

Answer 10

-check patient can stand unsupported
-ask patients to remove outer clothing and shoes
-patients pockets should be emptied
-patient should step on scale
-make sure patient is unsupported whilst weight is measured
-allow measurement to stabilise
-record weight, patient step off scale
-clean scales after use