175. Investigating the Role of BMI in Health Care

175. Investigating the Role of BMI in Health Care

From NP Pulse: The Voice of the Nurse Practitioner (AANP) by American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP)

February 25, 2026 · 16 min · Episode 175

About this episode

Robin Beach discusses the limitations of BMI and the benefits of using waist circumference for assessing patient health.

Robin Beach is an HIV specialist who began to turn a critical eye to the usefulness of body mass index (BMI) when it came to understanding the overall health of a patient. On the latest episode of NP Pulse: The Voice of the Nurse Practitioner®, she speaks with Sophia Thomas about using waist circumference as a way to measure the health of specific patient populations instead of BMI, and offers practical strategies for bringing this new tool into routine practice.

People in this episode

Guest: Robin Beach

Topics covered

  • BMI
  • health measurement
  • waist circumference
  • patient health
  • HIV
  • nurse practitioners

Keywords

  • BMI
  • waist circumference
  • health assessment
  • HIV specialist
  • nurse practitioner
  • patient populations

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NP Pulse: The Voice of the Nurse Practitioner, American Association of Nurse Practitioners

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