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Usages and Applications of Anthropometry in Public Health

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Public Health Statistics and Risk Assessment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2023) | Viewed by 8344

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Johan Molenbroek

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Department of Industrial Design, Delft University of Technology, Delft 2628CE, The Netherlands
Interests: anthropometry; obesity; inclusive design

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Anthropometry is the study of the human body dimensions and shape in relation to societal standards about growth, nutrition, obesity, and, for example, public accessibility. In that process, the ease of collecting, storing, analyzing, and visualizing data and instruments to collect anthropometric has changed during the last few decades.

We know from the validation of self-reported anthropometry that people will lie towards the mean, and therefore, the measured estimated extreme values will not be reliable. Apart from tape measures and GPM or Harpenden anthropometers, more and more 3D scanning methods are used with scanners that take 10–50 3D pictures per second and create 4D anthropometry, but low-cost mobile 3D applications are also available.

Having collected 1D, 2D, 3D, or 4D data of human bodies, more and more software applications are used to extract the body quantities and process them into meaningful visual communication such as tables and graphs, animations, and videos and to compare them against standards in society. Three-dimensional scanning has an advantage in relation to monitoring obesity patients because it is now easy to study where on the body the body fat is growing or disappearing when 2 consecutive 3D body scans with a few months of difference in time are overlayed and show the body-shape differences in a colorful so-called “heatmap”.

In this Special Issue, we are calling for papers to showcase the great variety of performances that have been achieved in this area. Topics may be divided in methodology or in applications. I would encourage you to write a paper that will highlight the expanding methodology and increased use that have emerged in recent decades in public health using 1D, 2D, 3D, and 4D anthropometry—1D meaning here tape measuring, 2D taking a flat surface picture, 3D taking a 3D surface scan, and 4D collecting data from a moving body (part).

Dr. Johan Molenbroek
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

3D anthropometry
obesity
inclusive design
software
digital

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research

2 pages, 225 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

The Average Man Does Not Exist

by Johan Molenbroek

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(4), 2094; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042094 - 13 Feb 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1709

Abstract

Public health will improve if the prevention means take care of the variation in human characteristics and do not only consider the average or reference man [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Usages and Applications of Anthropometry in Public Health)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

16 pages, 1348 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reference Values for Sagittal Clinical Posture Assessment in People Aged 10 to 69 Years

by Oliver Ludwig, Carlo Dindorf, Jens Kelm, Steven Simon, Felix Nimmrichter and Michael Fröhlich

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(5), 4131; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054131 - 25 Feb 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1332

Abstract

Poor posture is a well-known problem in all age groups and can lead to back pain, which in turn can result in high socio-economic costs. Regular assessment of posture can therefore help to identify postural deficits at an early stage in order to take preventive measures and can therefore be an important tool for promoting public health. We measured the posture of 1127 symptom-free subjects aged 10 to 69 years using stereophotogrammetry and determined the sagittal posture parameters flèche cervicale (FC), flèche lombaire (FL), and kyphosis index (KI) as well as the values standardized to the trunk height (FC%, FL%, KI%). FC, FC%, KI, and KI% showed an increase with age in men but not in women, and a difference between the sexes. FL remained largely constant with age, although FL% had significantly greater values in women than men. Postural parameters correlated only moderately or weakly with body mass index. Reference values were determined for different age groups and for both sexes. Since the parameters analyzed can also be determined by simple and non-instrumental methods in medical office, they are suitable for performing preventive checks in daily medical or therapeutic practice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Usages and Applications of Anthropometry in Public Health)

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15 pages, 5654 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ergonomic Design and Assessment of an Improved Handle for a Laparoscopic Dissector Based on 3D Anthropometry

by Yujia Du, Rui Jiang and Haining Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(3), 2361; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032361 - 29 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2916

Abstract

Laparoscopic surgery (LS) has been shown to provide great benefits to patients compared with open surgery. However, surgeons experience discomfort, low-efficiency, and even musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) because of the poor ergonomic design of laparoscopic instruments. A methodology for the ergonomic design of laparoscopic dissector handles considering three-dimensional (3D) hand anthropometry and dynamic hand positions was addressed in this research. Two types of hand positions for grasping and stretching were scanned from 21 volunteers using a high-resolution 3D scanner. The 3D anthropometric data were extracted from these 3D hand pose models and used to design an improved handle (IH) that provides additional support for the thumb, a better fit to the purlicue, and a more flexible grasp for the index finger. Thirty subjects were invited to evaluate the IH in terms of muscular effort, goniometric study of motion, and efficiency and effectiveness during four trials of a laparoscopic training task. Questionnaires provided subjective parameters for ergonomic assessment. Positive results included less muscle load in the trapezius as well as significant but small angular differences in the upper limb. No significant reduction in the trial time and no increased percentage of the achievement were observed between the IH and the commercial handle (CH). Improved intuitiveness, comfort, precision, stability, and overall satisfaction were reported. IH provides significant ergonomic advantages in laparoscopic training tasks, demonstrating that the proposed methodology based on 3D anthropometry is a powerful tool for the handle design of laparoscopic dissectors and other surgical instruments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Usages and Applications of Anthropometry in Public Health)

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13 pages, 1707 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Torso Shape Improves the Prediction of Body Fat Magnitude and Distribution

by Simon Choppin, Alice Bullas and Michael Thelwell

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(14), 8302; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148302 - 7 Jul 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1630

Abstract

Background: As obesity increases throughout the developed world, concern for the health of the population rises. Obesity increases the risk of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions associated with type-2 diabetes. Correctly identifying individuals at risk from metabolic syndrome is vital to ensure interventions and treatments can be prescribed as soon as possible. Traditional anthropometrics have some success in this, particularly waist circumference. However, body size is limited when trying to account for a diverse range of ages, body types and ethnicities. We have assessed whether measures of torso shape (from 3D body scans) can improve the performance of models predicting the magnitude and distribution of body fat. Methods: From 93 male participants (age 43.1 ± 7.4) we captured anthropometrics and torso shape using a 3D scanner, body fat volume using an air displacement plethysmography device (BODPOD^®) and body fat distribution using bioelectric impedance analysis. Results: Predictive models containing torso shape had an increased adjusted R² and lower mean square error when predicting body fat magnitude and distribution. Conclusions: Torso shape improves the performance of anthropometric predictive models, an important component of identifying metabolic syndrome risk. Future work must focus on fast, low-cost methods of capturing the shape of the body. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Usages and Applications of Anthropometry in Public Health)

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