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Body habitus considerations in US anatomical body donation programs — Perspectives and practices from program guidelines
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Body habitus considerations in US anatomical body donation programs — Perspectives and practices from program guidelines

Soph Myers-Kelley, Jenna Hagerty, Heidi Reis, Kerry Sewell, Sophie Orr, Maureen Helgren, Rebecca L. Pearl, Marisa Langton and Malli Barremkala
Anatomical sciences education, v 19(1), pp 85-92
Jan 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.70129
PMID: 41188201
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.70129View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY V4.0,  Open

Abstract

anatomical donor programs anatomy education Anatomy
Many US body donation programs impose restrictions on donations based on body size. To examine the body habitus criteria related to body weight, height, proportion, and other size factors in United States body donation programs (USBDP), 127 USBDP publicly available websites listed by the University of Florida were reviewed. Since this study focuses on publicly available website information, it may not capture the characteristics of all programs. Eleven percent of the USBDP websites with public-facing criteria exclusively listed numeric restrictions, while 24.4% included both descriptive and quantitative (numeric) terminology. The majority of websites with public-facing criteria (90.6%) imposed a weight-related restriction, with 55.1% providing descriptive (i.e., non-numeric) terms. The most common body mass index (BMI) cutoff (30 kg/m2) could disqualify some U.S. adults from donating, as the average BMI in the United States for adult females is 29.8 and for adult males is 29.4. Fourteen programs offered explanations of their descriptive or numeric weight/BMI restrictions. As language evolves to better describe and reflect body habitus, keeping up to date with best practice and community preferences may help when designing donor criteria. Public-facing information about body habitus criteria for donation may limit the representativeness of body habitus used in anatomical education and research. The implications of this on anatomical education and weight bias in students require more research.

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