Abstract
Three-dimensional (3D-) body scanning of children and adolescents allows the detailed study of physiological development in terms of anthropometrical alterations which potentially provide early onset markers for obesity. Here, we present a systematic analysis of body scanning data of 2,700 urban children and adolescents in the age range between 5 and 18 years with the special aim to stratify the participants into distinct body shape types and to describe their change upon development. In a first step, we extracted a set of eight representative meta-measures from the data. Each of them collects a related group of anthropometrical features and changes specifically upon aging. In a second step we defined seven body types by clustering the meta-measures of all participants. These body types describe the body shapes in terms of three weight (lower, normal and overweight) and three age (young, medium and older) categories. For younger children (age of 5–10 years) we found a common ‘early childhood body shape’ which splits into three weight-dependent types for older children, with one or two years delay for boys. Our study shows that the concept of body types provides a reliable option for the anthropometric characterization of developing and aging populations.
Highlights
Anthropometry is important for understanding the development of children and adolescents
We recently developed an analysis workflow based on self-organizing maps (SOM) to evaluate body scanner data [13], which was applied to the preprocessed Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases (LIFE) Child data: In the first step, SOM machine learning was used for unsupervised clustering of the 46 body measures, delivering eight clusters called ‘meta-measures’
We analyzed 3D-body scanning data collected in the LIFE Child study with 2,700 participants covering an age range between 5 and 18 years
Summary
Anthropometry is important for understanding the development of children and adolescents It allows for detailed evaluation of diversity of body shapes and their variations in the context of aging and disorders. Measures such as the body mass index (BMI) [1], the waist circumference [2], the waist-to-height-ratio [3] and the neck circumference [4] are used to evaluate the nutritional status, and to detect obesity and the risk of related secondary diseases. Overweight, obesity and their comorbidities are a widespread problem in children and adolescents with a need for measures that differentiate between normal physiological and pathological development [5].
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