Body Mass Index (BMI) Calculator

The Body Mass Index is an attempt to quanitfy the amount of tissue mass in an individual and categorize the individual as underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese. Normal weight is categorized as a BMI between 18.5 and 25. There is some debate about both the scale and accuracy of this index as a meausurement of health.

There are a variety of measures of health, such as cholestrol levels, blood pressure, resting pulse rate, fasting glucose levels, and BMI that medical professionals use to make inferences about the patient's health.

BMI is a straightforward calculation based on height and weight, and is well-suited for a Shiny application because the user can input and adjust their height and weight, and the server.R function can perform the calculations.

\( BMI = \frac{Weight}{Height^2} \) where weight and height are kg and m respectively.

To learn more about Shiny, I recommend

• the online tutorial here: https://shiny.rstudio.com/tutorial/
• the excellent Coursera/Johns Hopkins University class “Developing Data Products”