About BVI
BVI is a novel technology providing 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 are descriptions of the results BVI will provide.
Total Body Fat
Body Fat (also known as "adipose tissue") carries out many essential functions,
as well as helping store energy in our bodies. Body fat 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 the fat found on the inside of the
abdomen, around the organs (liver, kidneys, pancreas etc.), and is metabolically very
active. Too much visceral fat is potentially harmful and can lead to the development of
serious health conditions, including type-2 diabetes, fatty liver, some forms of cancer and
coronary heart disease.
Waist 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.
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 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 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,
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 20 years. As muscle weighs more than fat, exercising can cause a BMI to go up as overall weight has increased. Comparatively, BVI's analysis of part volumes calculates where weight is gained or lost on the body and what that means for your health.
BVI has now been proven to be a 23% improvement over BMI as a predictor of metabolic health risk. This is nearly one-fifth more people who can be correctly assessed, capturing 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.
Development of BVI
BVI technology has been developed from over twenty years of research and development by pioneers in body measurement and a consortium of healthcare and scientific collaborators.
After development of the initial BVI software and algorithms, the outputs were analysed and validated against the BMI by Mayo Clinic. On 1,280 patients over a 10-year period, 105 different body volume combinations were considered, with over 134,000 permutations of body volumes evaluated.
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