Does body mass index predict overweight in native Asian Indians? A study from a North Indian population.
OBJECTIVE
Body mass index (BMI) has been considered as a gold standard for defining overweight and obesity, and in western populations it has correlated with percentage body fat (%BF). However, data in native Asian Indians regarding BMI and %BF is conflicting and questions have been raised to redefine the BMI cut-off values in these subjects.


METHODS
150 healthy volunteers (79 men and 71 women aged 18-78 and 23-75 years respectively) were recruited for the study. Clinical examination was performed to exclude any systemic disease. Anthropometric measurements were done and %BF was calculated from skinfold thickness.


RESULTS
The BMI for men was 24.96 kg/m(2) (+/-3.85) and for women was 25.75 kg/m(2) (+/-4.39).%BF calculated by skinfold thickness was 21.94% (+/-5.92) in men and 35.15% (+/-5.77) in women. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed a higher sensitivity (92%) and higher negative predictive value (95%) for the conventional cut-off value of the BMI (25 kg/m(2)) in identifying subjects with overweight with %BF of more than 25% in men. However, in females a BMI of 23.9 kg/m(2) had a sensitivity of 84% and negative predictive value of 62% thereby decreasing the misclassification by 13% with %BF of more than 30% as compared to conventional BMI cut-off of >25 kg/m(2). A comparison of BF data amongst Caucasians, Blacks and migrant ethnic Asians revealed inconspicuous differences in men.


CONCLUSIONS
Native North Indian men had comparative BMI and %BF as that of their western counterparts.
Bhansali
A
A
Department of Endocrinology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. anilbhansali_endocrine@rediffmail.com
Nagaprasad
G
G
Agarwal
A
A
Dutta
P
P
Bhadada
S
S
D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000378:metabolism*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000886:Anthropometry; D044466:Asian People; D044383:Black People; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D044468:Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D044465:White People