Abstract
Obesity is characterized by the accumulation of an excessive amount of fat mass (FM) in the adipose tissue, subcutaneous, or inside certain organs. The risk does not lie so much in the amount of fat accumulated as in its distribution. Abdominal obesity (central or visceral) is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer, having an important role in the so-called metabolic syndrome. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent, detect, and appropriately treat obesity. The diagnosis is based on anthropometric indices that have been associated with adiposity and its distribution. Indices themselves, or a combination of some of them, conform to a big picture with different values to establish risk. Anthropometric indices can be used for risk identification, intervention, or impact evaluation on nutritional status or health; therefore, they will be called anthropometric health indicators (AHIs). We have found 17 AHIs that can be obtained or estimated from 3D human shapes, being a noninvasive alternative compared to X-ray-based systems, and more accessible than high-cost equipment. A literature review has been conducted to analyze the following information for each indicator: definition; main calculation or obtaining methods used; health aspects associated with the indicator (among others, obesity, metabolic syndrome, or diabetes); criteria to classify the population by means of percentiles or cutoff points, and based on variables such as sex, age, ethnicity, or geographic area, and limitations.
Highlights
Overweight and obesity are the most prevalent metabolic disorders in developed countries
A total of 42 anthropometric health indicators (AHIs) have been identified and categorized into four groups according to the possibility of estimation from 3D human shapes and the availability of classification criteria (Figure 1 and Table 1)
Obesity has a high impact on metabolic disturbances, contributing to the development of insulin resistance, atherogenic dyslipidemia, metabolic syndrome, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, leading to the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease
Summary
Overweight and obesity are the most prevalent metabolic disorders in developed countries. The prevalence of obesity has increased tremendously in recent decades (WHO | Noncommunicable diseases country profiles, 2018). Obesity has been associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as other conditions such as cancer, mental health, and osteoarthritis, contributing to a decrease in both quality of life and life expectancy (Pischon et al, 2008; Di Angelantonio et al, 2016; Blüher, 2019). The obese phenotype, is complex, and some patients have no obvious cardiometabolic effect. In this sense, obesity, but especially abdominal adiposity (central or visceral), induces or aggravates the presence of insulin resistance, which, in turn, leads to different metabolic disturbances, constituting a cluster of the obesity-driven alterations known as the metabolic syndrome (Kahn et al, 2019)
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