Body adiposity index performance in estimating body fat in a sample of severely obese Brazilian patients. Issue 1 (December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Belarmino, Giliane; Horie, Lilian; Sala, Priscila; Torrinhas, Raquel; Heymsfield, Steven; Waitzberg, Dan
• Is Part Of: Nutrition journal. Volume 14:Issue 1(2015)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 7
• Publication Date: 2015-12
• Subjects: Obesity -- Body fat -- Body composition -- Nutritional assessment -- Body adiposity index -- Air displacement plethysmography; Nutrition -- Periodicals; 612.305
• DOI: 10.1186/s12937-015-0119-8
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1475-2891

Abstract

Abstract Background/objectives The body adiposity index (BAI) estimates the amount of body fat (BF) in humans. In Mexican-American and African-American populations, BAI has performed better than body mass index (BMI). The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of BAI in estimating percentage (BF%) in severely obese Brazilian patients, with air displacement plethysmography (ADP) used as the reference method. Subjects/methods Estimation of BF% by ADP, anthropometric measurements (height, abdominal and hip circumferences, body weight, and BMI) and BAI calculation were performed in 72 obese subjects (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 ) aged 30–55 years. Results The mean BF% estimates ± standard deviation were 52.1 ± 5.7 % for ADP and 47.7 ± 7.4 % for BAI, with a positive Pearson correlation (r p = 0.66) and a positive Lin's concordance correlation (r c = 0.479) observed between these methods. The 95 % limits of individual agreement between BAI and ADP ranged from -5.769 % to 16.036 %, with BAI exhibiting an average positive bias of 5.13 % compared to the reference method. For each studied variable, BAI exhibited a systematic bias, as evidenced by a tendency for low BF% values to be overestimated. Conclusion For Brazilian patients with severe obesity, BAI does not provide an accurate estimate of BF%.