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Updated: May 21, 2026
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
The Utility of a New Index for Adiposity among Pre-school Children
Insights
Childhood obesity is a growing concern. A new index, the body mass abdominal index (BMAI), strongly correlates with overall adiposity (BMI) in preschool children, suggesting its utility in assessing obesity risks.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Public Health
- Anthropometry
Background:
- Childhood obesity is a significant public health issue, predicting adult obesity and associated chronic diseases.
- Accurate measurement of adiposity in preschool children is crucial for early intervention.
- Conventional indices for measuring adiposity may not fully capture abdominal fat distribution.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate various abdominal adiposity indicators: waist circumference (WC), waist-hip ratio (WHR), waist-height ratio (WHTR), conicity index (CI), and the novel body mass abdominal index (BMAI).
- To assess the relationship between these abdominal adiposity measures and overall adiposity, as determined by body mass index (BMI).
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study involving 2,016 preschool children (ages 3-5 years) from rural West Bengal, India.
- Data collected from randomly selected Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) centers.
- Statistical analysis including correlation and linear regression to assess relationships between adiposity indices and BMI.
Main Results:
- All measured adiposity indices showed significant correlations with BMI in both boys and girls.
- The body mass abdominal index (BMAI) exhibited the strongest correlation with BMI (r = 0.863).
- BMAI significantly impacted BMI, explaining 74.5% of its variations, indicating its strong predictive power.
Conclusions:
- The body mass abdominal index (BMAI) is a reliable and effective indicator of overall adiposity (BMI) in preschool children.
- Further research is recommended to validate BMAI against direct measures of adiposity.
- Early identification of childhood obesity through robust indices like BMAI is vital for long-term health outcomes.
Abstract:
Obesity in children is a cause for concern because it may predict adult obesity and increased risk of coronary heart disease in adult life. Adiposity in preschool children is measured by different conventional indices. The aim of the present study was to measure the indicators of abdominal adiposity - waist circumference (WC), waist-hip ratio (WHR), waist-height ratio (WHTR), conicity index (CI) and a newly proposed body mass abdominal index (BMAI), and to assess the relationship of these with overall adiposity as measured by body mass index (BMI). The study was conducted on 2,016 rural pre-school children (930 boys and 1,086 girls), aged 3-5 years from randomly selected 66 Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) centres in the Nadia District of West Bengal, India. Results showed significant correlations for all adiposity measures with BMI in both sexes. A noteworthy point was that the correlations were strongest (p< 0.01) with BMAI (boys: r = 0.856, girls: r = 0.868, sex-combined: r = 0.863). Results of linear regression of adiposity measures with BMI revealed that BMAI had the strongest significant impact (t = 76.729) on BMI. Moreover, this new index accounted for 74.5% of variations in BMI. In conclusion, our results provide evidence for the use of body mass abdominal index (BMAI) as a good indicator of overall adiposity (BMI). More studies should be undertaken including its validation with other direct measures of adiposity.
