Abstract
With the epidemic of obesity, there has been concern about assessment of adiposity and different deposits of fat which may lead to different body shapes. Frequently, we think of body mass index (BMI) as the best way to characterize the development of obesity in the clinical setting. However, BMI is not a perfect measure of adiposity and may be imprecise. In this issue of The Journal, Lebiedowska et al report on the development of a human body shape index based on normal age related changes in body shape in boys and girls. They found that this index had less inherent variability and was less influenced by growth than other widely used indices. It remains to be determined what method will be best to determine obesity in children in the clinical setting. The method chosen must be easily usable by primary care pediatricians in a busy clinical practice. With the epidemic of obesity, there has been concern about assessment of adiposity and different deposits of fat which may lead to different body shapes. Frequently, we think of body mass index (BMI) as the best way to characterize the development of obesity in the clinical setting. However, BMI is not a perfect measure of adiposity and may be imprecise. In this issue of The Journal, Lebiedowska et al report on the development of a human body shape index based on normal age related changes in body shape in boys and girls. They found that this index had less inherent variability and was less influenced by growth than other widely used indices. It remains to be determined what method will be best to determine obesity in children in the clinical setting. The method chosen must be easily usable by primary care pediatricians in a busy clinical practice. Human Body Shape Index Based on an Experimentally Derived Model of Human GrowthThe Journal of PediatricsVol. 152Issue 1PreviewTo test the assumption of geometrically similar growth by developing experimentally derived models of human body growth during the age interval of 5 to 18 years; to use these derived growth models to establish a new human body shape index (HBSI) based on natural age-related changes in human body shape (HBS); and to compare various metrics of relative body weight (body mass index [BMI], ponderal index [PI], and HBSI) in a sample of 5- to 18-year-old children. Full-Text PDF
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