The statistical relationship between human height and weight is of especial importance to clinical medicine, epidemiology, and the biology of human development. Yet, after more than a century of anthropometric measure...The statistical relationship between human height and weight is of especial importance to clinical medicine, epidemiology, and the biology of human development. Yet, after more than a century of anthropometric measurements and analyses, there has been no consensus on this relationship. The purpose of this article is to provide a definitive statistical distribution function from which all desired statistics (probabilities, moments, and correlation functions) can be determined. The statistical analysis reported in this article provides strong evidence that height and weight in a diverse population of healthy adults constitute correlated bivariate lognormal random variables. This conclusion is supported by a battery of independent tests comparing empirical values of 1) probability density patterns, 2) linear and higher order correlation coefficients, 3) statistical and hyperstatistics moments up to 6th order, and 4) distance correlation (dCor) values to corresponding theoretical quantities: 1) predicted by the lognormal distribution and 2) simulated by use of appropriate random number generators. Furthermore, calculation of the conditional expectation of weight, given height, yields a theoretical power law that specifies conditions under which body mass index (BMI) can be a valid proxy of obesity. The consistency of the empirical data from a large, diverse anthropometric survey partitioned by gender with the predictions of a correlated bivariate lognormal distribution was found to be so extensive and close as to suggest that this outcome is not coincidental or approximate, but may be a consequence of some underlying biophysical mechanism.展开更多
Body Mass Index (BMI), defined as the ratio of individual mass (in kilograms) to the square of the associated height (in meters), is one of the most widely discussed and utilized risk factors in medicine and public he...Body Mass Index (BMI), defined as the ratio of individual mass (in kilograms) to the square of the associated height (in meters), is one of the most widely discussed and utilized risk factors in medicine and public health, given the increasing obesity worldwide and its relation to metabolic disease. Statistically, BMI is a composite random variable, since human weight (converted to mass) and height are themselves random variables. Much effort over the years has gone into attempts to model or approximate the BMI distribution function. This paper derives the mathematically exact BMI probability density function (PDF), as well as the exact bivariate PDF for human weight and height. Taken together, weight and height are shown to be correlated bivariate lognormal variables whose marginal distributions are each lognormal in form. The mean and variance of each marginal distribution, together with the linear correlation coefficient of the two distributions, provide 5 nonadjustable parameters for a given population that uniquely determine the corresponding BMI distribution, which is also shown to be lognormal in form. The theoretical analysis is tested experimentally by gender against a large anthropometric data base, and found to predict with near perfection the profile of the empirical BMI distribution and, to great accuracy, individual statistics including mean, variance, skewness, kurtosis, and correlation. Beyond solving a longstanding statistical problem, the significance of these findings is that, with knowledge of the exact BMI distribution functions for diverse populations, medical and public health professionals can then make better informed statistical inferences regarding BMI and public health policies to reduce obesity.展开更多
文摘The statistical relationship between human height and weight is of especial importance to clinical medicine, epidemiology, and the biology of human development. Yet, after more than a century of anthropometric measurements and analyses, there has been no consensus on this relationship. The purpose of this article is to provide a definitive statistical distribution function from which all desired statistics (probabilities, moments, and correlation functions) can be determined. The statistical analysis reported in this article provides strong evidence that height and weight in a diverse population of healthy adults constitute correlated bivariate lognormal random variables. This conclusion is supported by a battery of independent tests comparing empirical values of 1) probability density patterns, 2) linear and higher order correlation coefficients, 3) statistical and hyperstatistics moments up to 6th order, and 4) distance correlation (dCor) values to corresponding theoretical quantities: 1) predicted by the lognormal distribution and 2) simulated by use of appropriate random number generators. Furthermore, calculation of the conditional expectation of weight, given height, yields a theoretical power law that specifies conditions under which body mass index (BMI) can be a valid proxy of obesity. The consistency of the empirical data from a large, diverse anthropometric survey partitioned by gender with the predictions of a correlated bivariate lognormal distribution was found to be so extensive and close as to suggest that this outcome is not coincidental or approximate, but may be a consequence of some underlying biophysical mechanism.
文摘Body Mass Index (BMI), defined as the ratio of individual mass (in kilograms) to the square of the associated height (in meters), is one of the most widely discussed and utilized risk factors in medicine and public health, given the increasing obesity worldwide and its relation to metabolic disease. Statistically, BMI is a composite random variable, since human weight (converted to mass) and height are themselves random variables. Much effort over the years has gone into attempts to model or approximate the BMI distribution function. This paper derives the mathematically exact BMI probability density function (PDF), as well as the exact bivariate PDF for human weight and height. Taken together, weight and height are shown to be correlated bivariate lognormal variables whose marginal distributions are each lognormal in form. The mean and variance of each marginal distribution, together with the linear correlation coefficient of the two distributions, provide 5 nonadjustable parameters for a given population that uniquely determine the corresponding BMI distribution, which is also shown to be lognormal in form. The theoretical analysis is tested experimentally by gender against a large anthropometric data base, and found to predict with near perfection the profile of the empirical BMI distribution and, to great accuracy, individual statistics including mean, variance, skewness, kurtosis, and correlation. Beyond solving a longstanding statistical problem, the significance of these findings is that, with knowledge of the exact BMI distribution functions for diverse populations, medical and public health professionals can then make better informed statistical inferences regarding BMI and public health policies to reduce obesity.
