Behind BVI
BVI is a novel technology that provides a better understanding of body composition.
BVI is unlike anything else currently available so we have put together this page, to house our glossary and links to papers and studies involving BVI.
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The following terms are descriptions of the results BVI will provide.
TOTAL BODY FAT
Body Fat (also known as "adipose tissue") is an organ that carries out many essential functions,
as well as helping store energy in our bodies. Body Fat makes and sends lots of chemical
messengers in and around our bodies that are essential for our well-being. However, excess
body fat can lead to significant clinical complications, linked to development of many diseases.
VISCERAL FAT
Visceral fat (also known as "intra-abdominal fat") is all the fat found on the inside of your
abdomen, around your organs (liver, kidneys, pancreas, gut etc.), and is metabolically very
active. Too much visceral fat is potentially harmful as it is linked to the development of numerous
serious health conditions, including type-2 diabetes, fatty liver, some forms of cancer and
coronary heart disease.
WAIST & HIP CIRCUMFERENCE
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the waist is best measured in a horizontal
line halfway on the side of the body between the iliac crest (the pelvic bone) and the bottom of
the ribcage. The hip is measured in a horizontal line at the widest point of the buttocks of a person.
WAIST-TO-HIP RATIO
Waist-to-hip ratio measures the difference between the waist circumference and the hip
circumference. The measurement determines how much fat is stored on the waist, hips, and
buttocks. Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is one of several measurements that can be used to see if
excess weight is putting health at risk.
WAIST-TO-HEIGHT RATIO
Waist-to-height ratio is obtained by dividing your waist size by your height. Men and women
should keep their waist circumference to no more than half of their height. The waist to height
ratio is equally valid for children and adults, irrespective of age and recent guidelines suggest
that 0.5 as the key figure for men and women of all ethnicities.
BVI RISK INDICATOR
The new Body Volume Index (BVI) looks at the risk of metabolic syndrome and is different from
the Body Mass Index (BMI). BVI looks at where a person’s weight is distributed on the body,
whereas BMI just looks at total weight.
BVI takes a person’s body shape and divides it into 7 sections digitally using the unique BVI
technology developed over 15 years. BVI can then work out where the weight is for the arms,
legs, chest, abdomen and pelvis; just from two digital images.
Health risk is then predicted by looking at the relationship between the torso volume and the
volumes of the four limbs. This relationship is important because almost all sports and exercises is
designed to help a person increase the volume in their arms and legs and to reduce their torso
volume.
As muscle weighs more than fat, exercising can cause a BMI Number to go up as overall weight has increased. Comparatively, BVI's analysis of part volumes calculates that the extra volume around the limbs is muscle, meaning there is a reduced risk of health.
This is why BVI has now been proven to be a 19% improvement over BMI as a predictor of
metabolic health risk. This is nearly one-fifth more people who can be correctly assessed, so BVI
correctly captures the health risk of more people at the initial time of healthcare and clinical
evaluation than BMI can.
The BVI Risk Indicator, as a risk of the metabolic syndrome, is divided into four quartiles, each
providing an indicator of risk as being LOW, LOW TO MEDIUM, MEDIUM TO HIGH or HIGH risk.
The ranges are explained more in the other resources document for integration with the API.
BVI NUMBER
The Body Volume Index (BVI) has been developed from over fifteen years of research and
development by pioneers in body measurement and a consortium of international healthcare and
scientific collaborators.
After development of the initial BVI software and algorithms by the collaborators, the outputs
were analysed and validated against the Body Mass Index (BMI) by Mayo Clinic. On 1,280
patients over a 10-year period, 105 different body volume combinations were considered,
meaning that over 134,000 permutations of body volumes were evaluated.
Mayo Clinic eventually considered that height, weight, gender, central abdomen, pelvic and chest
volumes ultimately provided the best combination of measurements for the prediction of
cardio-metabolic risk and this has led to the BVI Number available today.
The BVI Number range is between 1 and 20, so can be easily distinguished from the range for
BMI which is usually between 18 and 35. The BVI number increases as a person’s future risk is
calculated, and has been determined to account for age differences with those who have a
higher risk as they get older. The key marker for risk with the BVI Number is ‘13’. Those with a
BVI Number under 13 are less at risk than those with a number higher than 13.
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Research Papers and Articles Involving BVI
The Sun Newspaper: Alice Fuller
Betsy J. Medina Inojosa, Virend K. Somers, Jose Medina-Inojosa, Lynne A. Johnson, Francisco Lopez-Jimenez
Jose Medina-Inojosa, Virend Somers, Sarah Jenkins, Jennifer Zundel, Lynne Johnson, Chassidy Grimes, Francisco Lopez-Jimenez
Kristien Boelaert, Suzanne Palin, Annmarie Field, Asad Rahim & Richard Barnes
Jose R Medina-inojosa, Audry Chacin Suarez, Farzane Saeidifard, Smitha Narayana Gowda, Justin Robinson, Kalkidan Aseged, Johnson Lynne, Jennifer Zundel, Amanda Bonikowske, and Francisco Lopez-jimenez
Abd Tahrani, Kristien Boelaert, Richard Barnes, Suzanne Palin, Annmarie Field, Helen Redmayne, Lisa Aytok & Asad Rahim
Yoel Korenfeld, Taiwo Ngwa, Lindsay Friedman, Abel Romero-Corral, Ling Hinshaw, Felipe N Albuquerque, Fatima H Sert-Kuniyoshi, Aynur Okcay, Virend K. Somers, Francisco Lopez-Jimenez