Anthropometric Indices and Metabolic Health Assessment

Anthropometric indices quantify body size, shape and fat distribution to illuminate links between adiposity and metabolic health. Traditional measures such as body mass index (BMI) provide a crude estimate of overall fatness but fail to distinguish central from peripheral fat. Supplementary metrics—including waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio and emerging indices such as A Body Shape Index (ABSI) and Body Roundness Index (BRI)—offer improved insight into abdominal adiposity, which is closely tied to insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, hypertension and systemic inflammation. By capturing static and dynamic aspects of body shape, these measures enhance detection of metabolic syndrome, refine cardiovascular risk stratification and inform targeted prevention and intervention strategies across diverse populations.

Research from Nature Portfolio

A seminal large-scale European analysis evaluated over 350,000 participants with more than 16 years of follow-up to compare alternative waist indices in combination with BMI for mortality prediction. Only a shape-adjusted waist index independent of BMI (ABSI) preserved expected risk associations for both general and abdominal adiposity. High ABSI identified individuals at elevated all-cause mortality across BMI categories, outperforming conventional waist measures. This work demonstrated that integrating BMI with a BMI-independent waist metric markedly improves risk stratification, supporting personalised screening, treatment and monitoring of cardiometabolic health.

Anthropometric Indices and Metabolic Health Assessment publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in anthropometric indices and metabolic health assessment across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Body mass index (BMI): weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared, a general measure of overall adiposity.

Waist circumference (WC): measurement around the abdomen, reflecting central fat accumulation.

A Body Shape Index (ABSI): waist circumference normalised for height and weight to yield a BMI-independent gauge of abdominal adiposity.

Body Roundness Index (BRI): modelled from waist circumference and height to estimate body fat percentage and visceral fat volume.

Metabolic syndrome: cluster of risk factors—central obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension and hyperglycaemia—associated with elevated cardiometabolic risk.

Central adiposity: fat deposition around the abdomen and internal organs, closely linked to adverse metabolic and cardiovascular outcomes.

References

1. Obesity indices and the risk of total and cardiovascular mortality among people with diabetes: a long-term follow-up study in Taiwan. Cardiovascular Diabetology (2023).
2. Comparing the association of novel Anthropometric and atherogenicity indices with all-cause, cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular mortality in a general population of Iranian adults. American Journal of Preventive Cardiology (2025).
3. Associations of trajectories in body roundness index with incident cardiovascular disease: a prospective cohort study in rural China. Frontiers in Nutrition (2024).
4. A Body Shape Index (ABSI) achieves better mortality risk stratification than alternative indices of abdominal obesity: results from a large European cohort. Scientific Reports (2020).