title: Body mass index and waist circumference rather than body adiposity index are better surrogates for body adiposity in a Chinese population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Several studies have found that body adiposity index (BAI) is a better index of body adiposity than body mass index (BMI) in African and Mexican American adults. This study aims to evaluate the ability of BAI to predict body adiposity in Chinese children and adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  In total, 2425 children and 5726 adults were recruited from rural China. All participants completed whole-body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and anthropometric measures. The correlation of BMI, BAI, and waist circumference (WC) to DXA adiposity indexes was performed across sex-specific adult and age- and sex-specific child cohorts, using Spearman correlation and linear regression models, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both BMI and WC had a higher correlation with all adiposity indexes (whole body fat, percent body fat [Bfat%], trunk fat, and percent trunk fat [Tfat%]) measured by DXA than did BAI in both adults and children. Meanwhile, most of the linear regression model associations for BMI with Bfat% and Tfat% had a greater adjusted R(2) than those for BAI among both children and adults.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study indicates that BMI and WC are better tools than BAI for estimating whole body fat and central body fat in a Chinese population.
authors.affiliation: The Department of Epidemiology & Health Statistics, School of Public Health, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, China.
authors.forename: Yunxian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: The Department of Epidemiology & Health Statistics, School of Public Health, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, China.
authors.forename: Lijuan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The Department of Epidemiology & Health Statistics, School of Public Health, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: The Department of Epidemiology & Health Statistics, School of Public Health, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, China.
authors.forename: Shanchun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center on the Early Life Origins of Disease, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: Sheila O
authors.initials: SO
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.affiliation: Smith Child Health Research Program, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago Research Center, Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Tami
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bartell
authors.affiliation: Center on the Early Life Origins of Disease, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland xiwang@jhsph.edu.
authors.forename: Xiaobin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000273:Adipose Tissue; D050154:Adiposity; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000886:Anthropometry; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055105:Waist Circumference; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: absorptiometry; adipose tissue; adiposity; body adiposity index; body fat; body fat distribution; body mass index; dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry