A body shape index (ABSI) is a metric for assessing the health implications of a given human body height, mass, and waist circumference. The inclusion of the latter is believed to make the ABSI a better indicator of excess weight mortality risk than the standard BMI. The ABSI correlates only slightly with height, weight, and BMI, indicating that it is independent of other anthropometric variables in predicting mortality.
One criticism of BMI is that it does not distinguish between muscle mass and fat and therefore may be elevated in people with increased BMI due to muscle development rather than fat accumulation from overeating. Higher muscle mass may actually reduce the risk of premature death. A high ABSI appears to correspond to a higher proportion of central obesity or abdominal fat.
In a sample of Americans in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, mortality rates in some subjects were high for both BMI and high and low waist circumferences (WC), a familiar conundrum associated with BMI. Conversely, mortality rates increased proportionally with increasing ABSI values. The linear relationship was not affected by adjustments for other risk factors, such as smoking, diabetes, elevated blood pressure, and serum cholesterol.
The equation for ABSI is based on statistical analysis of shape and is derived from allometric regression (with weight and height in meters).
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{displaystyle ABSI={{text{Waist circumference}} \over {IMC^{2 \over 3}times Height^{1 \over 2}}}}
Studies have associated the ABSI with total mortality and cardiovascular risk, indicating that it is useful for assessing cardio-metabolic risks.
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