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Mark G. Jameson, MD
Towson, Md

JAMA. 1987;258(3):323-324.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

The recent article by Bloom et al¹ entitled "Does Obesity Protect Hypertensives Against Cardiovascular Disease?" has been the topic of recent comment.^2,3 Close scrutiny of their data discloses the genuine possibility that very few of the study subjects were in fact obese. Although no single uniformly accepted definition of obesity or overweight exists, four standard definitions that employ body mass index (BMI) are widely used; BMI equals weight (in kilograms) divided by height squared (in square meters). Bray⁴ appears to be the only researcher to define both obesity and overweight in terms of BMI. (Other researchers utilize BMI to define only overweight.) Bray defines obesity as a BMI above 30. Table 1 in the article by Bloom et al reports the mean BMI of the highest weight quintile to be 28-3, well under Bray's criterion for obesity.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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