Project Details
Early Career
Status: Funded - Open
Development of a Clinically Accessible Optical Scanner for Body Composition Assessment in Early Life
Summary
BACKGROUND: Rapid weight gain during early life and early-onset adiposity are among the strongest predictors of lifelong cardiometabolic disease, yet clinicians currently rely on BMI and weight-for-age measures that cannot distinguish fat mass from fat-free mass during the most critical developmental window. GAP: No validated, low-cost tool exists for infant body composition assessment in clinical or field settings during the first five years of life. Existing reference methods require specialized equipment and trained personnel that are unavailable in most pediatric clinics. HYPOTHESIS: A tablet-integrated three-dimensional optical scanner can accurately and reliably estimate fat mass and fat-free mass in young children, providing a practical and scalable tool for nutritional assessment in clinical and low-resource settings. METHODS: This cross-sectional validation study will enroll 40 children aged 2 to 5 years at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, Hawaii. Each child will undergo tablet-based three-dimensional optical scanning, manual anthropometry, and bioelectrical impedance analysis during a single visit. Fat mass and fat-free mass estimates from the tablet system will be compared against bioelectrical impedance analysis values using Bland-Altman analysis, intraclass correlation coefficients, and root mean square error. RESULTS: Pending. IMPACT: A validated, portable tablet-based scanner for infant body composition would transform early growth monitoring across clinical and low-resource settings globally, enabling timely detection of excess adiposity and growth faltering and supporting clinical intervention before lifelong health consequences are established.