Abdominal obesity is an important contributor for health risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hypercholesterolemia. Therefore, the application of a proper method is important prerequisite in performing abdominal obesity assessment. In this study, we applied 3D body scanning technology to measure waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC) and waist to hip ratio (WHR) precisely in an effort to improve the current health assessment for abdominal obesity. A total of 200 Malaysian women with sedentary lifestyle, aged between 18 and 60 years participated in this study. Paired t-test was used to determine the differences between the automated (3D body scanner) and manual measurements of WC, HC and WHR. 3D body scanner measurements show that 27% of subjects had mild abdominal obesity (80 - 90 cm) and 34.5% of subjects had severe abdominal obesity (≥90 cm) based on WC cutoff points. Based on WHR cutoff points, 57% of subjects had abdominal obesity (≥0.85) while the remaining were without abdominal obesity (<0.85). Lower percentages of abdominal obesity prevalence were reported for both WC and WHR categories using manual measurements. We also found that in normal BMI category, 8.5% of subjects have mild abdominal obesity based on automated measurements while only 5.5% of subjects were identified on manual measurements. The result of this study indicated that 3D body scanner provided better assessment method as it enables detection of abdominal obesity in more subjects based on WC and WHR categories. Public agencies are encouraged to consider the application of 3D body scanning in health assessment of abdominal obesity.
Foot arch determines the shape of the foot, whether it is normal, flat or high. Excessive body weight is known to be the
main factor in altering the foot arches. The foot arches of adult women were determined based on five different footprint
parameters (Clarke index, Chippaux-Smirak index, Staheli index, Arch index and the Harris-imprint index) and the
relationship between Body Mass Index (BMI) and foot arches were studied. A total of 309 adult women from the age of
20 to 60 years were recruited in this study. The shape of participants’ feet were obtained and their left and right foot
arches were determined using five different footprint parameters. Body weight and height were measured and BMI was
calculated. Paired t-test and one-way ANOVA were applied to perform the statistical analysis. Our analysis showed that
two third of the participants have different foot arches between the left and right feet. The Harris-imprint index exhibited
the most significant (p=0.004) differences between the left (mean=0.168) and right (mean=1.011) foot arches. Most of
the overweight (53%) and obese (15%) participants have normal arches; however the prevalence of flat and high arches
is still higher in overweight (flat arch= 51%; high arch= 52% ) and obese (flat arch= 18%; high arch= 12%) compared
to other BMI categories. Harris-imprint index was successfully studied as a suitable parameter in determining the left
and right foot arches.