Body Mass Index Essay

Body mass index is a diagnostic tool used in ascertaining the prevalence of obesity, overweight and thinness in a human population (Cole and Lobstein, 2012). It is also widely used as a predominant indicator for the amount of body fat (Pasco et al., 2014), which is supported by Gallagher et al., (1996) as a representative of body adiposity. Body mass index is often used as a diagnostic tool to evaluate obesity and overweight based on weight and height as anthropometric factors (Murguia-Romero et al., 2012). Moreover, WHO (2004), described it as a tool for estimating the underweight, overweight and obesity in a human population.

Body mass index measurement was introduced by Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet (1842) to explain the connection between body weight and stature in humans, until recently, researchers were able to discover the usefulness of body mass index in estimating body fats (Deurenberg et al., 1991). WHO,

There is a paucity of information on kidney dimensions as well as body mass index parameters of Nigerian indigenous dogs which their clinical importance cannot be overemphasized, so therefore there is the need to unveil the relationship between the body mass index with kidney dimensions in Nigerian indigenous dogs.

1.3 Justifications

The Nigerian Indigenous Dogs constitutes a high population of over 55% of all the dogs presented to the Small Animal Unit, Ahmadu Bello University Veterinary Teaching Hospital. So better understanding of this breed necessitates establishing data such as kidney dimensions and body mass index which both has clinical relevance. From the relationship between body mass index with kidney dimensions, inferences on kidney functionality can be deduced from the evaluation of body mass index of Nigerian indigenous dogs which can be a useful tool in the diagnosis of kidney