The validity of the body adiposity index in predicting percentage body fat and cardiovascular risk factors among Chinese

Objective Recent research has suggested that body adiposity index (BAI) correlates more closely with percentage body fat (PBF) than body mass index (BMI). Here, we aimed to evaluate BAI's predictive power for PBF and for obesity-associated risk factors in the Chinese population. Subjects A total of 1707 women and 680 men aged 51-77 years were analysed in this community-based cross-sectional study. Measurements Body weight, height, waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC) were measured, and BMI and BAI were calculated. Percentage body fat was determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Blood pressure, fasting lipid profiles, glucose and Carotid ultrasound examination determined intima-media thickness (IMT) at the common carotid arteries (CCA) were also measured. Results The Pearson correlation analysis indicated a stronger correlation between BAI and PBF when women and men were pooled together, but this effect disappeared in sex-stratified analysis. Bland-Altman plots suggested that BAI underestimated 5.8% of PBF in women and slightly overestimated 0.28% of PBF in men, but the magnitudes of these biases showed a fat mass-dependent manner. Both the logistic regression and the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis indicated that BAI has an inferior predictive power for the presence of hypertension, dyslipidaemia, metabolic syndrome and CCA-intima-media thickening, compared with BMI and WC. Conclusion We concluded that BAI was neither a better predictor for PBF nor for cardiovascular risks in Chinese population compared with BMI and WC.