title: Body shape indices and cardiometabolic risk in adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  "A Body Shape Index" (ABSI) is a recently proposed index that standardizes waist circumference for body mass index (BMI) and height using the scaling exponents 2/3 and 1/2, respectively, estimated from adults. Incidentally, waist-to-height ratio has been suggested as an indicator of cardiometabolic risk in adolescents.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aims to estimate the scaling exponents for standardizing waist circumference for BMI and height in Chinese adolescents and to estimate and compare the ability of various body shape indices in predicting cardiometabolic risk in adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants aged 10-17 years in the 2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey were analysed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The appropriate scaling exponents for standardizing waist circumference for BMI and height in this adolescent sample were 0.45 and 0.55, respectively. A new ABSI-adolescents was defined accordingly. Ignoring the age dependence in the scaling exponents would lead to confounded associations. The ABSI-adolescents and the waist-to-height ratio were more associated with glycated haemoglobin and pre-diabetes, but not blood pressure, than the BMI was.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The scaling exponent for standardizing waist circumference for BMI is age-dependent. Indices based on waist circumference adjusted for BMI are more associated with glycated haemoglobin than BMI in adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Center for Quantitative Medicine, Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School , College Road , Singapore .
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Weili
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Yin Bun
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Cheung
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D044466:Asian People; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D049628:Body Size; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000378:metabolism; D057238:Growth Charts; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008659:Metabolic Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications; D011236:Prediabetic State / Q000150:complications*; D012306:Risk; D055105:Waist Circumference; D065927:Waist-Height Ratio
chemical_list: D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin; C517652:hemoglobin A1c protein, human
keywords: Abdominal obesity; body composition; body shape; cardiometabolic risk; waist circumference