Abstract
Weight-height index must be independent of height, but correlate with weight. Four indices were studied in this respect on 6, 272 men and 7, 230 women who were apparently healthy employees of Tokyo Metropolitan Government. These indices were simple weight-height ratio (W/H), body mass index or Quetelet's index (W/H2, BMI), ponderal index (H/3√W) and Broca-Katsura's index [W/(H-100)×0.9, BK], where W is weight in kg and H is height in cm. The result showed that BMI was preferable over the other irdices, because it was most independent of height and highly correlated with weight in each decade of both sexes. In the third decade there was no change of BMI with a change of height and this was quite different from the others.
In males a increase of BMI was observed in the period of age from the third to the fourth decade, after which it plateaued until 69 years of age. In females, however, there was a gradual rise of BMI from the third until the seventh decade.
Frequency of high blood pressure was significantly higher in the group with high BMI (26 or over) than the group with low or normal BMI. In male there was no significant relationship of BMI to the smoking habit or the amount of cigarette consumption.
