University of Hawaii researcher John Shepherd was recently awarded a $3.1 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Shepherd received the funding for a project he's working on, in partnership with partner Steven Heymsfield of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, called Shape Up! Keiki. The study aims to provide new body composition technologies to detect the risks of metabolic consequences of obesity among young children, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes and premature heart disease.
The observational study of 360 children will create advanced models of body shape from 3D optical whole-body scans. According to UH officials the results of the study will provide clear descriptions of how body shape and composition are related to metabolic risk factors like high blood pressure, increased cholesterol levels and risk of developing cancer among children of Hawaii and the Pacific.
“Obese adolescents have their most rapid weight gain before the age of five, and are usually already obese by that age," Shepherd said in a statement. "Despite clear connections between obesity and disease risk, pediatric obesity research is limited due to the lack of appropriate body composition technologies."
The outcome of the Shape Up! Keiki study will provide descriptions of how the body shape of Hawaii residents varies across their lifespan.
In the future, Shepherd says that he hopes this technology will be accessible worldwide through consumer-level gaming and smartphone technologies, which will help parents and pediatricians monitor their children’s health from home.
