title: Concordance of the recently published body adiposity index with measured body fat percent in European-American adults.
abstract: The body adiposity index (BAI; hip circumference (cm)/height (m)(1.5) - 18) has recently been shown to demonstrate a stronger correlation with percentage body fat (%fat) than that between the BMI and %fat in Mexican-American adults. Here, we compare the concordance between %fat from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and BAI, and between %fat and BMI, in European-American adults (n = 623). Agreement between BAI, BMI, and %fat was assessed using Lin's concordance coefficients (ρ(c)), where values <0.90 are considered poor. In the sample as a whole, the agreement between BAI and %fat (ρ(c) = 0.752) was far better than that between BMI and %fat (ρ(c) = 0.445) but was nonetheless relatively poor. There were large mean differences in %fat between the BAI and DXA %fat, particularly at lower levels of adiposity (<20%), and further the BAI overestimated %fat in males and underestimated %fat in females. Optimizing the BAI formula for our sample only marginally improved performance. Results of the present study show that BAI provides a better indicator of adiposity in European-American adults than does BMI, but does not provide valid estimates of %fat, particularly at lower levels of body fatness. Further research is warranted to investigate the predictive ability of BAI for various health outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: William C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Chumlea
authors.forename: Stefan A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Czerwinski
authors.forename: Ellen W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Demerath
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon; D050154:Adiposity / Q000208:ethnology; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000473:pathology; D009820:Ohio / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
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