Skip Navigation


NDT Advance Access originally published online on September 22, 2007
Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation 2008 23(1):47-51; doi:10.1093/ndt/gfm517
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
23/1/47    most recent
gfm517v2
gfm517v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Eknoyan, G.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Eknoyan, G.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author [2007]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of ERA-EDTA. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org


Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874)—the average man and indices of obesity

Garabed Eknoyan

Renal Section, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA

Correspondence to: G. Eknoyan, MD, Department of Medicine (523-D), Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Email: geknoyan{at}bcm.edu



  Abstract

The quest for a practical index of relative body weight that began shortly after actuaries reported the increased mortality of their overweight policyholders culminated after World War II, when the relationship between weight and cardiovascular disease became the subject of epidemiological studies. It became evident then that the best index was the ratio of the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters, or the Quetelet Index described in 1832. Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874) was a Belgian mathematician, astronomer and statistician, who developed a passionate interest in probability calculus that he applied to study human physical characteristics and social aptitudes. His pioneering cross-sectional studies of human growth led him to conclude that other than the spurts of growth after birth and during puberty, ‘the weight increases as the square of the height’, known as the Quetelet Index until it was termed the Body Mass Index in 1972 by Ancel Keys (1904–2004).

For his application of comparative statistics to social conditions and moral issues, Quetelet is considered a founder of the social sciences. His principal work, ‘A Treatise of Man and the development of his faculties’ published in 1835 is considered ‘one of the greatest books of the 19th century’. A tireless promoter of statistical data collection based on standard methods and definitions, Quetelet organized in 1853 the first International Statistical Congress, which launched the development of ‘a uniform nomenclature of the causes of death applicable to all countries’, progenitor of the current International Classification of Diseases.

Keywords: Adolphe Quetelet; Body Mass Index; International Classification of Diseases; obesity; probability calculus; Quetelet Index; statistics

See http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/ndtplus/

Received for publication: 24. 5.07
Accepted in revised form: 4. 7.07


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.