Commentary: Underweight in adults: Time for ethnic-specific criteria?

The classification for underweight adults, defined as a body mass index (BMI; <18.5 kg/m²) by the World Health Organization (WHO), has been consistent globally with respect to populations. Although the WHO has recognized that body composition and health risks differ according to ethnicity by offering adjusted BMI cut-offs for overweight and obesity (23-24.9 kg/m² for overweight and ≥25 kg/m² for obesity) in Asian-populations, the underweight threshold has strangely not been modified. Because there is evidence of unique physiological and metabolic profiles of Asian populations the applicability of this uniformity to Asian populations remains as an important question.