Brief communication: Body mass index, body adiposity index, and percent body fat in asians

Abstract

Human obesity is a growing epidemic throughout the world. Body mass index (BMI) is commonly used as a good indicator of obesity. Body adiposity index (BAI = hip circumference (cm)/stature (m)(1.5) - 18), as a new surrogate measure, has been proposed recently as an alternative to BMI. This study, for the first time, compares BMI and BAI for predicting percent body fat (PBF; estimated from skinfolds) in a sample of 302 Buryat adults (148 men and 154 women) living in China. The BMI and BAI were strongly correlated with PBF in both men and women. The correlation coefficient between BMI and PBF was higher than that between BAI and PBF for both sexes. For the linear regression analysis, BMI better predicted PBF in both men and women; the variation around the regression lines for each sex was greater for BAI comparisons. For the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the area under the ROC curve for BMI was higher than that for BAI for each sex, which suggests that the discriminatory capacity of the BMI is higher than the one of BAI. Taken together, we conclude that BMI is a more reliable indicator of PBF derived from skinfold thickness in adult Buryats.

Comparison of the Body Adiposity Index to Body Mass Index in Korean Women

“…However, only one study has attempted to validate the BAI on an Asian population. The results suggested that BMI was a more reliable indicator of BF% derived from skinfold thickness in adult Asian 21. Ethnic differences in hip circumference and height could exist, and the frequency of physical activity can also affect the measured value.…”

“…Our results were comparable to other recent studies which showed that BMI is more strongly associated with adiposity and metabolic risk factors than is BAI 16,17,18,19,20. BMI was more accurate surrogate for adiposity in American,19,20 Mexican Americans,17 Caucasian,18 and Asian subjects 21. Also one found that BMI was more strongly correlated with insulin sensitivity and type 2 diabetes risk 14.…”

“…Two-tailed p values <0.05 were considered significant. Pearson's correlations were used to examine the correlations between BMI and BAI and metabolic indices 15,17,19,21,30. Partial correlation was also used to adjust for the effect of age.…”

“…The diagnostic accuracy of BMI and BAI were assessed by constructing ROC curves to detect BF%-based obesity 18,21. The areas under each ROC curve were calculated using the logistic procedure in STATA (Stata Corp, College Station, TX, USA), in which the area under the curve (AUC) was determined by integration.…”

“…Also, in African-American and Hispanic women, the use of BAI has no advantage over the use of BMI 11,16,19,20. Only one study has determined the relationship between both BMI and BAI and BF% in Asian subjects,21 and additionally, the utility of this index for metabolic risk has not yet been confirmed in this ethnicity. Therefore, it is important to validate BAI for predicting adiposity and metabolic risk in other Asian groups.…”