Paper Title
Obesity Assessment Using Three Dimensional (3D) Body Scanning Technology
Abstract
Abstract- Obesity is one of the risk factor that could lead to the development of non communicable disease such as diabetes
mellitus, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Body mass index (BMI) is a universal indicator that has been widely used by
researcher and healthcare practitioner to categorize obesity. However, BMI cannot differentiate between fat and muscle that
could penalized muscular individuals into obese category. In contrast, 3D scanning technology which is able to generate
precise measurement of body shape and size is valuable in term of identification of abnormal fat distribution which become
the factor that affect health condition. The aim for this study is to identify the correlation of obesity index and body fat
percentage. The obesity index include in this study are body mass index, waist circumference, waist to hip ratio and
abdominal volume index that were taken manually and automatically. A total of 300 Malaysian women aged 18-54 years old
in University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur participated in this study. Data on body fat percentage and weight were measured
using Full Body Sensor Body Composition Monitor and Scale (Omron HBF 514). Waist and hip circumference were taken
using manual measurement. Participants also have undergone 3D body scanning procedures to obtain body circumferences,
body volume and 3D image. The mean age of the study population was 27.4 years, with a mean BMI of 24.89 kg m-2. All the
obesity indices correlated significantly with body fat while waist to hip ratio consistently has the lowest correlation
coefficients. In summary, BMI have some limitations to differentiate between fat and muscle. We suggest that by
incorporating 3D body scanning technology, it will provide better assessment tool for early detection of individual health
particularly having risk of heart disease, strokes, and diabetes.
Keywords- 3D body scanning, obesity, manual measurement, automated measurement, body fat.