Phenotyping adults for excess adiposity and related health risks usually include three body size measurements: height, weight and waist circumference (WC). Height and weight are now widely used as components of the body shape measure, body mass index (BMI, weight/height²), with the height power referred to as the scaling factor, α. At present, WC is usually not adjusted for height or is expressed as WC/height in which α = 1. Although other α values have been proposed, a critical review of these shape measures is lacking. Here, we examine classical pathways by which the scaling exponent for height used in BMI was developed and then apply this strategy to identify the optimum WC index characteristic of adult shape. Our analyses explored anthropometric, body composition and clinically‐relevant data from US and Korean National Health and Nutrition Surveys. Our findings provide further support for the WC index of WC/height^0.5 as having the strongest associations with adiposity while having the weakest correlations with height across non‐Hispanic white and black, Mexican American and Korean men and women. The WC index, defined as WC/height^0.5, when combined with BMI, can play an important role when phenotyping adults for excess adiposity and associated health risks in research and clinical settings.

中文翻译：

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评估成人肥胖的最佳腰围-身高指数：分析综述。

对成年人过度肥胖和相关健康风险进行表型分析通常包括三个体型测量：身高、体重和腰围 (WC)。身高和体重现在被广泛用作体型测量的组成部分，体重指数（BMI，体重/身高²)，高度功率称为比例因子，α。目前，WC 通常不针对高度进行调整，或者表示为 WC/高度，其中 α = 1。虽然已经提出了其他 α 值，但缺乏对这些形状测量的严格审查。在这里，我们研究了开发 BMI 中使用的身高比例指数的经典途径，然后应用该策略来确定成人体型的最佳 WC 指数特征。我们的分析探索了来自美国和韩国国家健康和营养调查的人体测量学、身体成分和临床相关数据。我们的研究结果进一步支持了WC/身高^{0.5的WC指数}在非西班牙裔白人和黑人、墨西哥裔美国人和韩国男性和女性中，与肥胖的相关性最强，而与身高的相关性最弱。WC 指数（定义为 WC/身高^0.5）与 BMI 结合使用时，可以在研究和临床环境中对成人过度肥胖和相关健康风险进行表型分析时发挥重要作用。