The issue of the effect of age on the recommended range of weights-for-height remains controversial. The major controversy involves the question of adjustment of recommended weights for age. The widely used Metropolitan Tables, most recently revised in 1983, are said to be applicable to ages 25 to 59 years. A re-analysis of data from the insurance industry (published in Build Study 1979) and a comprehensive collation of all pertinent studies from the world's literature has been previously accomplished. These analyses showed the necessity of modifying recommended weight-for-height for specific age groups, at least up to the 60-69 year decade. There has developed sufficient concern over the inadequacies of the Metropolitan 1983 tables that the Life Sciences Information Office of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology held a planned meeting in July 1986 to discuss their possible role in providing new weight tables which would in essence have the imprimatur of FASEB. Dr. Henry Sebrell, former Director of the National Institutes of Health, was a moving force in the development of this role for FASEB. Our role in this effort is as Consultant to FASEB and, ultimately, providing them with the analyses which we have previously conducted using weighted quadratic correlational analyses for a number of the most important published studies in this field.
