An Average Body Circumference Can Be a Substitute for Body Mass Index in Women

Table 2

Spearman Rank correlations of BMI with body circumferences.

Participants	All; ()	Normal; ()	Overweight; ()	Obese; ()
	BMI with circumference of
Hip	0.89	0.56	0.53	0.61
Waist	0.84	0.49	0.57	0.56
Arm	0.82	0.42	0.47	0.49
Forearm	0.79	0.52	0.42	0.57
Neck	0.77	0.48	0.32	0.54
Thigh	0.73	0.45	0.31	0.50
Wrist	0.61	0.30^**	0.29	0.38
Ankle	0.61	0.39	0.22^*	0.44
Waist/hip ratio	0.40	0.08^*	0.28^**	0.10^*
ABC^a	0.95	0.60	0.77	0.80
UBC^b	0.91	0.54	0.69	0.67
LBC^c	0.89	0.49	0.49	0.65
(N + W + H + A + Th)/5	0.95	0.58	0.77	0.78
(W + H + A + Th)/4	0.94	0.57	0.75	0.77
(Neck + waist + hip)/3	0.93	0.55	0.72	0.73
(Waist + hip)/2	0.92	0.54	0.70	0.71

Normal, with BMI ≤24.9. Overweight, with BMI 25–29.9. Obese, with BMI ≥30.
^aABC = average body circumference, average of (neck + waist + hip + arm + forearm + wrist + thigh + ankle).
^bUBC, upper body circumference, average of (neck + waist + arm + forearm + wrist).
^cLBC, lower body circumference, average of (hip + thigh + Ankle). N = neck, W = waist, H = Hip, A = arm, and Th = thigh.
The coefficients () marked with one asterisk were nonsignificant, with two asterisks having , and the rest without asterisk had .