紐時賞析／新健康指標「BRI」登場！可評估腹部脂肪 還有望用於預測死亡率

情境示意图。图／Ingimage

Time to Say Goodbye to the BMI?

该是向BMI道别的时候？

Move over, body mass index. Make room for roundness — to be precise, the body roundness index.

挪开吧，身体质量指数。让位给圆度，更精确地说，身体圆度指数。

The body mass index, or BMI, is a ratio of height to weight that has long been used as a medical screening tool. It is one of the most widely used health metrics but also one of the most reviled, because it is used to label people overweight, obese or extremely obese.

身体质量指数，或简称BMI，是一项身高与体重的比率，长期以来被用作疾病筛检工具。BMI是使用最广泛的健康指标之一，但因把人贴上超重、肥胖或极度肥胖的标签，也是最为人诟病的指标之一。

The classifications have been questioned by athletes including American Olympic rugby player Ilona Maher, whose BMI of 30 technically puts her on the cusp of obesity. “But alas,” she said on Instagram, addressing online trolls who tried to shame her about her weight, “I’m going to the Olympics and you’re not.”

这样的分类也遭到美国奥运橄榄球选手伊洛娜．马赫在内的运动员质疑，她的BMI为30，严格来说是达到肥胖门槛。伊洛娜在IG上回应羞辱她体重的酸民网友：「哎呀，我要参加奥运，但是你不行。」

Advocates for overweight individuals and people of color note that the formula was developed nearly 200 years ago and based exclusively on data from men, most of them white, and that it was never intended for medical screening.

过重者与有色人种的倡议人主张，该公式制定于近200年前，且数据仅来自男性，其中大部分为白人，而且从来没有打算用于疾病筛检。

Even physicians have weighed in on the shortcomings of BMI. The American Medical Association warned last year that BMI is an imperfect metric that doesn’t account for racial, ethnic, age, sex and gender diversity. It can’t differentiate between individuals who carry a lot of muscle and those with fat in all the wrong places.

甚至医师也开始讨论BMI的缺点。美国医学会去年警告，BMI是不完美的指标，其并未考虑种族、族群、年龄、性别与性别多元化，也无法辨别个体是拥有大量肌肉，还是脂肪都囤积在错误的地方。

“Based on BMI, Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was a bodybuilder would have been categorized as obese and needing to lose weight,” said Dr. Wajahat Mehal, director of the Metabolic Health and Weight Loss Program at Yale University. “But as soon as you measured his waist, you’d see, ‘Oh, it’s 32 inches.’”

耶鲁大学代谢健康与减重计划主任梅哈尔医师表示，「根据BMI，阿诺史瓦辛格还是健美选手时，会被归类为肥胖且需要减重，但只要测量他腰围就会发现，哦，32英寸」。

So, welcome a new metric: the body roundness index. BRI is just what it sounds like — a measure of how round or circlelike you are, using a formula that takes into account height and waist, but not weight.

因此，欢迎新指标：身体圆度指数（BRI）。BRI顾名思义使用考虑身高与腰围的公式，来测量你身形圆度或多圆，而不考虑体重。

It’s a formula that may provide a better estimate of central obesity and abdominal fat, which are closely linked to an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, unlike fat stored on the buttocks and thighs.

该公式能更妥善评估中央型肥胖与腹部脂肪，这与第二型糖尿病、高血压和心脏病风险增加高度相关，跟囤积在臀部与大腿的脂肪不一样。

A paper published in JAMA Network Open in June was the latest study to report that BRI is a promising predictor of mortality. BRI scores generally run from 1 to 15; most people rank between 1 and 10.

根据六月发表在美国医学会期刊网路开放版的一篇最新研究指出，BRI有望应用于预测死亡率。BRI评分1至15，大多数人介于1至10之间。

文／Roni Caryn Rabin　译／江昱蓁