Evaluation of Hip/HeightPRatio as an Index for Adiposity and Metabolic Complications in Obese Children: Comparison with Waist-related Indices.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether body adiposity index (BAI; hip/height1.5-18), pediatric BAI (BAIp; hip/height0.8- 38), and other hip/heightPratios are useful in obese children.


METHODS
Ninety obese Japanese children, 55 boys and 35 girls, who visited our University Clinic, were enrolled. The age was 9.92±2.6 (mean±SD) years, and the percentage overweight (POW) was 51.6±18.8%. We set the power value of the hip/heightP0, 0.5, 0.8, 1, 1.5, and 2 and studied the association with overweight indices, biochemical data, and fat area measured by computed tomography. Waist, waist/height ratio, and waist/hip ratio were also evaluated.


RESULTS
Hip/height and hip/height0.8(BAIp) were more closely correlated with POW, body mass index percentile, and percentage body fat than hip/height1.5(BAI). The correlation coefficient of hip/height with POW (r =0.855) was the highest among the studied hip/heightPindices. The approximate line to predict POW was 411×hip/height-207. The waist/height was also highly correlated with POW (r=0.879). Hip and hip/height0.5were more closely correlated with visceral fat area than hip/height, BAIp, and hip/height1.5. Hip and hip/height0.5were significantly correlated with insulin. Only hip was also significantly associated with dyslipidemia. All hip/heightPindices were not significantly correlated with alanine aminotransferase (ALT). Waist was significantly correlated with serum lipids, ALT, and insulin.


CONCLUSIONS
Hip/height and BAIp are better markers for overweight (adiposity) in obese children than BAI. However, hip/height, BAIp, and BAI are not useful to predict metabolic complications. Waist appears to be the best index for obese children overall at this time.
Department of Pediatrics, Showa University School of Medicine.
Kazushige
K
Dobashi
Kenichiro
K
Takahashi
Keiko
K
Nagahara
Daisuke
D
Tanaka
Kazuo
K
Itabashi
D050154:Adiposity; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008659:Metabolic Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications*; D050177:Overweight / Q000150:complications*; D012307:Risk Factors; D055105:Waist Circumference; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio
D015415:Biomarkers