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Lecture Notes

This graph shows the mortality rate in relation to body mass index, and here again, mortality rate, we're talking about a risk of death. You don't have to worry about the particular numbers here, but again, you can see that at the very low BMI you have an increased risk of mortality. The lowest risk is in kind of a normal body mass index range, and then it just gets higher and higher as your body mass index increases. And so it's important to note here that the biggest risks come from increases in body mass index.

And this very low end of the BMI, it does increase your risk, but that probably takes into account people who are quite unhealthy to begin with, and not necessarily just because of their weight. So, for example, maybe an elderly person who's also suffering from some kind of chronic disease but has a very low weight, or, for example, someone who has an eating disorder, very low weight. So that low BMI is an increased risk, but oftentimes it's confounded with people who have other diseases. And the biggest thing to note here is that, in general, as BMI increases, your risk of death also increases.