Corpulence index - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

The Corpulence measure (not to be confused with corpulence index, which is measured by actual weight/desired weight) or Ponderal Index (PI) is a measure of leanness (corpulence) of a person calculated as a relationship between mass and height. It was first proposed in 1921 as the "Corpulence measure" by Swiss physician Fritz Rohrer and hence is also known as Rohrer's Index. It is similar to the body mass index, but the mass is normalized with the third power of body height rather than the second power.

C I = m a s s h e i g h t 3

For a baby, it is calculated as

C I = b i r t h w e i g h t C r o w n − h e e l − l e n g t h 3

with m a s s in kilograms and h e i g h t in meters, giving a measure with the same dimensions as density. The corpulence index yields valid results even for very short and very tall persons. Because of this property, it is most commonly used in pediatrics. The normal values for infants are about twice as high as for adults, which is the result of their relatively short legs. It does not need to be adjusted for age after adolescence. It has also been shown to have a lower false positive rate in athletes.

The corpulence index is variously defined (the first definition should be preferred due to the use of SI-units kg and m) as follows:

Significance

It plays a role in assessing whether the intrauterine growth restriction of a child is symmetrical or asymmetrical.

CI has been shown to have higher sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value than BMI.

Body adiposity index

References

Corpulence index Wikipedia

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