Guidance
This guideline covers the link between body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference and the risk of disease among adults from black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups in the UK. The aim was to determine whether lower cut-off points should be used for these groups as a trigger for lifestyle interventions to prevent conditions such as diabetes, myocardial infarction or stroke.
The guideline does not include women who are pregnant.
NICE has also produced guidelines on preventing type 2 diabetes (this guideline extends those recommendations to black African and African-Caribbean groups) and obesity.
Recommendations
This guideline includes recommendations on:
- preventing type 2 diabetes
- BMI assessment, multi-component interventions and best practice standards
- general awareness raising
Who is it for?
- Healthcare and health improvement professionals
- Exercise referral practitioners
- Directors and managers of public health, local authority, voluntary and non-government organisations
- Providers of lifestyle weight management services
- People from black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups and other members of the public
Is this guideline up to date?
Next review: To be scheduled
Guideline development process
How we develop NICE guidelines
This guideline was previously called ‘assessing body mass index and waist circumference thresholds for intervening to prevent ill health and premature death among adults from black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups in the UK’.
Your responsibility
The recommendations in this guideline represent the view of NICE, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their judgement, professionals are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or service users. The application of the recommendations in this guideline is not mandatory and the guideline does not override the responsibility of healthcare professionals to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual patient, in consultation with the patient and/or their carer or guardian.
Local commissioners and/or providers have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual health professionals and their patients or service users wish to use it. They should do so in the context of local and national priorities for funding and developing services, and in light of their duties to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to reduce health inequalities. Nothing in this guideline should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with compliance with those duties.
Commissioners and providers have a responsibility to promote an environmentally sustainable health and care system and should assess and reduce the environmental impact of implementing NICE recommendations wherever possible.