Objectives: A new index of adiposity named body adiposity index (BAI) has been very recently proposed based on an investigation on Mexican-Americans and African-Americans. However, extensive perusal of literature worldwide revealed that, till date, no study has been undertaken using this new index. Ours is the first population-based study (except the original study) using this new index. Our objective was to evaluate the nutritional status, based on both the conventional index of adiposity (Body Mass Index, BMI) as well as this new index, of adult tribal Munda and Oraons of Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal. It also attempted to determine how well the results, using these two different indices, concur.
Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted among 210 (106 Munda and 104 Oraon) adult males from these tribal communities. Nutritional status was classified into four categories following standard cut-off values: underweight, normal, overweight and obese. Anthropometric variables weight, height and hip circumference were measured and BMI and BAI were computed.
Results: Among Mundas, based on BMI, 35.8 % and 1.0 % had chronic energy deficiency (CED) and overweight, respectively. However, using BAI, 36.8 % of subjects were overweight. Among Oraons, based on BMI, the frequencies of CED and overweight were 37.5 % and 1.0 %, respectively. However, based on BAI, 41.3 % were overweight. The ethnic-combined rates of CED and overweight based on BMI were 36.7 % and 1.0 %, respectively. On the basis of BAI, ethnic-combined rates of overweight and obesity was 39.0 %.
Discussion and Conclusion: These results clearly indicated that there were vast differences, while using these two indicators, in the classification of nutritional status. More validation studies among different ethnic groups are needed before BAI can be recommended for use in the study of nutritional status.

Keyword: Body mass index, body adiposity index, Munda, Oraon.

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