Body Shape Index

The Body Shape Index ( BSI ), also called a Body Shape Index ( ABSI ), is a method for determining an index for evaluating a person's body fat percentage. It is supposed to predict health risks better than the body mass index (BMI) by including the particularly harmful belly fat in the calculation. The ABSI-z value, which compares one's own value with the average values ​​of the population (in the USA) and thus determines an above or below average risk, is particularly meaningful. Diseases associated with increased belly fat include: B. heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke and arteriosclerosis. This measurement method is not suitable for pregnant women. The method developed in the USA is said to apply to black and white, but not to Mexican ethnic groups.

history

The Body Shape Index is a further development of the Body Mass Index and was proposed in July 2012 by Nir Y. and Jesse C. Krakauer. Nir Krakauer is Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at New York's CCNY Grove School of Engineering . He and his father, doctor Jesse Krakauer , proposed another calculation back in 2012, which they called ABSI (A Body Shape Index) . The ABSI was developed to specifically quantify the risk of abdominal obesity . A 2014 study confirms the Krakauers' assumption that ABSI is suitable as a prognostic tool for the mortality risk associated with obesity.

Calculation method

The body shape index is calculated from waist circumference , BMI and height as follows:

${\displaystyle BSI={\frac {U}{BMI^{\frac {2}{3}}\cdot l^{\frac {1}{2}}}}=U{\biggl (}{\frac {l^{5}}{m^{4}}}{\biggr )}^{\frac {1}{6}}}$

The waist circumference (U) and height (l) are given in meters and body weight (m) in kilograms.

If the BSI is above 0.083, one assumes an increased risk, at a value of 0.091 there should be a doubling of the relative risk.

Underlying data

The team led by son and father Krakauer analyzed data from 7011 adults over the age of 18, which had been collected in Great Britain in the mid-1980s (HALS1) and which had been surveyed again 7 years later as part of a follow-up study (HALS2).

This cohort study is believed to be broadly representative of the UK population in terms of region, employment status, origin and age. Furthermore, the records of the British National Health Service up to 2009 were used to identify deaths and cancers: Of the 7011 people examined, 2203 had died by 2009.

See also

• Health expectation
• Life expectancy

Web links

• Information on the BSI calculation by ZES Munich

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Doctors expose BMI shortcomings . In: London Evening Standard , Evening Standard Limited, January 18, 2006. Retrieved September 12, 2013. 
2. ↑ Farewell to the BMI : As the BMI is coming under increasing criticism, the New York scientist Nir Krakauer and his father proposed the so-called ABSI (A Body Shape Index) . In addition to height and weight, it also takes into account the waist circumference, Birgit Herden, Süddeutsche Zeitung, March 17, 2014
3. ^ ^{A b} Nir Y. Krakauer, Jesse C. Krakauer: A New Body Shape Index Predicts Mortality Hazard Independently of Body Mass Index . In: PLOS ONE . 7, July 18, 2012, p. E39504. doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0039504 . Retrieved September 12, 2013.
4. ↑ Criticism of the body mass index Sporty, healthy - but fat? , Jörg Römer, Spiegel ONLINE, November 6, 2014, accessed on April 22, 2019
5. ^ Nir Y. Krakauer, Jesse C. Krakauer: Dynamic Association of Mortality Hazard with Body Shape . In: PLOS ONE . 9, February 20, 2014, pp. 1-7. doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0088793 . Retrieved May 16, 2016.