Body roundness index

Body roundness index (BRI) is a calculation that includes someone’s height, weight, and waist circumference. Like some other indicators, it gives a clearer picture as to how fat is distributed throughout one’s body. The more fat in the abdomen, the higher risk someone is for health conditions. This is because excess fat can cause chronic inflammation, resulting in conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and cancer. In general, a waist measurement above 35 inches in women and 40 inches in men is considered unhealthy.

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The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently published a study arguing that BRI may be a more effective measure of health. While BMI may overestimate body fat in athletes, BRI considers waist circumference, which can prevent such overestimations.

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A BRI estimate falls on a scale of one to 20. In general, a value below 10 is considered a healthy BRI. A higher score would indicate a rounder body and thus an increased risk for obesity and associated comorbidities. Thus, BRI can be an important tool to characterizing and understanding somebody’s risk of obesity and obesity-related disease.