Validity and intraobserver reliability of three-dimensional scanning compared with conventional anthropometry for children and adolescents from a population-based cohort study

A Review on 3D Scanners Studies for Producing Customized Orthoses

When a limb suffers a fracture, rupture, or dislocation, it is traditionally immobilized with plaster. This may induce discomfort in the patient, as well as excessive itching and sweating, which creates the growth of bacteria, leading to an unhygienic environment and difficulty in keeping the injury clean during treatment. Furthermore, if the plaster remains for a long period, it may cause lesions in the joints and ligaments. To overcome all of these disadvantages, orthoses have emerged as important medical devices to help patients in rehabilitation, as well as for self-care of deficiencies in clinics and daily life. Traditionally, these devices are produced manually, which is a time-consuming and error-prone method. From another point of view, it is possible to use imageology (X-ray or computed tomography) to scan the human body; a process that may help orthoses manufacturing but which induces radiation to the patient. To overcome this great disadvantage, several types of 3D scanners, without any kind of radiation, have emerged. This article describes the use of various types of scanners capable of digitizing the human body to produce custom orthoses. Studies have shown that photogrammetry is the most used and most suitable 3D scanner for the acquisition of the human body in 3D. With this evolution of technology, it is possible to decrease the scanning time and it will be possible to introduce this technology into clinical environment.

Portable digital devices for paediatric height and length measurement: A scoping review and target product profile matching analysis

BACKGROUND

Routine anthropometry of children, including length/height measurement, is an essential component of paediatric clinical assessments. UNICEF has called for the accelerated development of novel, digital height/length measurement devices to improve child nutrition and growth surveillance programs. This scoping review aimed to identify all digital, portable height/length measurement devices in the literature or otherwise available internationally. We also assessed identified devices against the UNICEF Target Product Profile (TPP) to identify those of highest potential for clinical and public health use.

METHOD

We searched four databases (Medline, Embase, CINAHL and Global Health) and the grey literature between 1st January 1992 and 2nd February 2023. We looked for studies or reports on portable, digital devices for height or length measurement in children up to 18 years old. Citations were screened independently by two reviewers, with data extraction and quality assessment performed in duplicate and disagreements resolved. Devices were evaluated and scored against the 34 criteria of the UNICEF TPP.

RESULTS

Twenty studies describing twelve height/length measurement devices were identified, most of which used prospective validation designs. Additional devices were found in the grey literature, but these did not report key performance data so were not included. Across the twelve devices, only 10 of 34 UNICEF criteria on average could be fully assessed. Six met UNICEF's ideal accuracy standard and one device met the minimum accuracy standard. The Leica DistoD2 device scored highest (41%), followed by Autoanthro in a controlled environment (33%) and GLM30 (32%). These devices may be high potential for further assessment and development, though further research is required.

CONCLUSION

While 12 portable, digital devices exist for child height/length measurement, insufficient data are available to fully assess whether they meet the industry's needs. Although some devices show promise, further research is needed to test the validity of these devices in varying contexts, and continued development and commercialization will be important to improve reliability and precision of these devices for widespread use.

The smart body concept as a demonstration of the overarching utility and benefits of 3D avatars in retail, health and wellbeing: an accuracy study of body measures from 3D reconstruction

Recent developments in 3D graphic technologies enable the affordable and precise reconstruction of body scanned models that can be applied in a variety of verticals, such as fashion, fitness and wellness, and healthcare. The accuracy of body measurements is a crucial element for the successful application of avatars in the following use cases: Avatars that go beyond visual representation and offer intrinsic and precise anthropometric data defined as a smart body are discussed in this paper. In particular, this paper presents the Gate technology, an innovative, autonomous, sustainable body scanner, coupled with an automatic production pipeline and the concept of avatars as smart bodies. We present an accuracy study of scanning technology for scanning inanimate objects, as well as body parts versus the ground, by using an established accuracy scanning system. The results appear to be promising and confirm the hypothesis of applying the technology to the use cases discussed as well as broadening the research to other studies and future applications.

Prediction of military combat clothing size using decision trees and 3D body scan data

AIM

To determine how well decision tree models can predict tailor-assigned uniform sizes using anthropometry data from the New Zealand Defence Force Anthropometry Survey (NZDFAS). This information may inform automatic sizing systems for military personnel.

METHODS

Anthropometric data from two separate samples of the New Zealand Defence Force military were used. Data on Army personnel from the NZDFAS (n = 583) were used to develop a series of shirt- and trouser-size prediction models based on decision trees. Different combinations of physical, automatic, and post-processed measurements (the latter two derived from a 3D body scan) were trialled, and the models with the highest cross-validation accuracy were retained. The accuracy of these models were then tested on an independent sample of Army recruits (n = 154).

RESULTS

The automated measurement method (measurements derived automatically by the body scanner software) were the best predictors of shirt size (58.1% accuracy) and trouser size (61.7%), with body weight and waist girth being the strongest predictors. Clothing sizes that were incorrectly predicted by the model where generally one size above or below the tailor-predicted size.

CONCLUSIONS

Anthropometry measurements, when used with decision tree models, show promise for classifying clothing size. Methodological changes such as fitting gender-specific models, using additional anthropometry variables, and testing other data mining techniques are avenues for future work. More research is required before fully automated body scanning is a viable option for obtaining fast and accurate clothing sizes for military clothing and logistics departments.

Comparison of Body Scanner and Manual Anthropometric Measurements of Body Shape: A Systematic Review

Anthropometrics are a set of direct quantitative measurements of the human body’s external dimensions, which can be used as indirect measures of body composition. Due to a number of limitations of conventional manual techniques for the collection of body measurements, advanced systems using three-dimensional (3D) scanners are currently being employed, despite being a relatively new technique. A systematic review was carried out using Pubmed, Medline and the Cochrane Library to assess whether 3D scanners offer reproducible, reliable and accurate data with respect to anthropometrics. Although significant differences were found, 3D measurements correlated strongly with measurements made by conventional anthropometry, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and air displacement plethysmography (ADP), among others. In most studies (61.1%), 3D scanners were more accurate than these other techniques; in fact, these scanners presented excellent accuracy or reliability. 3D scanners allow automated, quick and easy measurements of different body tissues. Moreover, they seem to provide reproducible, reliable and accurate data that correlate well with the other techniques used.

[The LIFE Child study: A cohort study investigating child development in changing environmental conditions]

The LIFE Child study: A cohort study investigating child development in changing environmental conditions Objectives: The LIFE Child study investigates healthy child development from pregnancy to young adulthood and the development of lifestyle diseases. Methods: Since study initiation in 2011, 1068 pregnant women and 4658 children have been included in the study. Children are recruited until the age of 16 years. Follow-up visits take place once per year. Assessments include physical examinations, interviews, questionnaires, standardized tests, and biological samples including genetic analysis. Results: We found significant associations between socio-economic status and health behaviour, between the weight of mothers and their children and between excessive media use and psychological complaints. Further projects dealt with the creation of references curves and the evaluation of new research methods. Conclusions: The study provides important insights into the interplay between the living environment, behaviour and child health.

The aging human body shape

Body shape and composition are heterogeneous among humans with possible impact for health. Anthropometric methods and data are needed to better describe the diversity of the human body in human populations, its age dependence, and associations with health risk. We applied whole-body laser scanning to a cohort of 8499 women and men of age 40–80 years within the frame of the LIFE (Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases) study aimed at discovering health risk in a middle European urban population. Body scanning delivers multidimensional anthropometric data, which were further processed by machine learning to stratify the participants into body types. We here applied this body typing concept to describe the diversity of body shapes in an aging population and its association with physical activity and selected health and lifestyle factors. We find that aging results in similar reshaping of female and male bodies despite the large diversity of body types observed in the study. Slim body shapes remain slim and partly tend to become even more lean and fragile, while obese body shapes remain obese. Female body shapes change more strongly than male ones. The incidence of the different body types changes with characteristic Life Course trajectories. Physical activity is inversely related to the body mass index and decreases with age, while self-reported incidence for myocardial infarction shows overall the inverse trend. We discuss health risks factors in the context of body shape and its relation to obesity. Body typing opens options for personalized anthropometry to better estimate health risk in epidemiological research and future clinical applications.

Longitudinal anthropometry of children and adolescents using 3D-body scanning

3D-body scanning anthropometry is a suitable method for characterization of physiological development of children and adolescents, and for understanding onset and progression of disorders like overweight and obesity. Here we present a novel body typing approach to describe and to interpret longitudinal 3D-body scanning data of more than 800 children and adolescents measured in up to four follow-ups in intervals of 1 year, referring to an age range between 6 and 18 years. We analyzed transitions between body types assigned to lower-, normal- and overweight participants upon development of children and adolescents. We found a virtually parallel development of the body types with only a few transitions between them. Body types of children and adolescents tend to conserve their weight category. 3D body scanning anthropometry in combination with body typing constitutes a novel option to investigate onset and progression of obesity in children.

How to best assess abdominal obesity

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Abdominal obesity, especially the increase of visceral adipose tissue (VAT), is closely associated with increased mortality related to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and fatty liver disease. This review provides an overview of the recent advances for abdominal obesity measurement.

RECENT FINDINGS

Compared to simple waist circumference, emerging three-dimensional (3D) body-scanning techniques also measure abdominal volume and shape. Abdominal dimension measures have been implemented in bioelectrical impedance analysis to improve accuracy when estimating VAT. Geometrical models have been applied in ultrasound to convert depth measurement into VAT area. Only computed tomography (CT) and MRI can provide direct measures of VAT. Recent advances in imaging allow for evaluating functional aspects of abdominal fat such as brown adipose tissue and fatty acid composition.

SUMMARY

Waist circumference is a simple, inexpensive method to measure abdominal obesity. CT and MRI are reference methods for measuring VAT. Further studies are needed to establish the accuracy for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in estimating longitudinal changes of VAT. Further studies are needed to establish whether bioelectrical impedance analysis, ultrasound, or 3D body scanning is consistently superior to waist circumference in estimating VAT in different populations.

A combined approach to generate laboratory reference intervals using unbalanced longitudinal data

BACKGROUND

The interpretation of individual laboratory test results requires the availability of population-based reference intervals. In children, reference interval estimation has to consider frequently the strong age-dependency. Generally, for the construction of reference intervals, a sufficiently large number of independent measurement values is required. Data selections from hospitals or cohort studies often comprise dependencies violating the independence assumption.

METHODS

In this article, we propose a combination of LMS-like (mean, M; coefficient of variation, S; skewness, λ or L) and resampling methods to overcome this drawback. The former is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the construction of continuous reference intervals of anthropometric measurements in children. The approach allows the inclusion of dependent measurements, for example, repeated measurements per subject. It also provides pointwise confidence envelopes as a measure of reliability.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

The combination of LMS-type methods and resampling provides a feasible approach to estimate age-dependent percentiles and reference intervals using unbalanced longitudinal data.