Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-2016
Abstract
Body mass index (BMI) can be considered an application of a power law model to express body weight independently of height. Based on the same power law principle, we previously introduced a body shape index (ABSI) to be independent of BMI and height. Here, we develop a new hip index (HI) whose normalized value is independent of height, BMI, and ABSI. Similar to BMI, HI demonstrates a U-shaped relationship to mortality in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) population. We further develop a new anthropometric risk index (ARI) by adding log hazard ratios from separate nonlinear regressions of the four indicators, height, BMI, ABSI, and HI, against NHANES III mortality hazard. ARI far outperforms any of the individual indicators as a linear mortality predictor in NHANES III. The superior performance of ARI also holds for predicting mortality hazard in the independent Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) cohort.Thus,HI, along with BMI and ABSI, can capture the risk profile associated with body size and shape. These can be combined in a risk indicator that utilizes complementary information fromheight, weight, and waist and hip circumference.The combined ARI is promising for further research and clinical applications.
Comments
This article was originally published in the Journal of Obesity, available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/8094275.
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.