Course information

The course consists of recorded talks, demos and practicals, and this material will go live on our university Moodle Platform from 8 February 2022.

Live Question and Answer sessions via Zoom will take place on 15 March 2022 at 9:30 am and 3:30 pm and on 16 March 2022 at 10 am and 3:30 pm (UK time). We have planned these four live Q&A sessions to accommodate different time zones. Each live Q&A session will be 1 hour long. All the speakers have committed to attend each session so delegates can choose the most appropriate session for them. We will also record these Q&A sessions and add them to the Moodle platform, so delegates can view sessions if they were not able to participate. Delegates are encouraged to submit their questions prior to those sessions via the Moodle Platform.

Delegates will have over 5 weeks to browse the materials and carry out the different tasks prior to the live Q&A sessions on Zoom. There are approximately 9 hours of recorded materials, plus some further reading and small assignments that will each take 5-10 minutes to complete.

Therefore, we would recommend you spend at least an hour a day to ensure completion prior to the live Q&A sessions.

The recorded materials will be made available to delegates as pdfs also stored on the Moodle Platform.

Topics covered

The relevance and contributions of anthropometric and body composition measures, in particular fat distribution, to metabolic health outcomes

• Current evidence on the link between obesity (total, central, visceral, by type) and diabetes.
• Growth trajectories and their relationships to later metabolic health outcomes.

The principles of the different methods available to assess adiposity and their feasibility in different age groups and populations

• Focusing on the different methods available for the measurement of obesity, fat distribution and body composition, going from the most precise (e.g. MRI, 4 component) to the easiest (self- reported BMI), considering the balance between the cost/burden/feasibility/settings and the obtained validity/precision and detail.
• Introducing novel techniques, such as digital anthropometry using wearable technologies and smartphone cameras to assess body geometry.

Practical aspects of the different methods

• For each of the methods (basic anthropometry, including skinfold measures; bioelectrical impedance, BODPOD and PEA BOD, DEXA, Ultrasound, Deuterium dilution, 4 component model, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy) virtual workshop/assignments will be set. Students will be provided with practice datasets and/or videos of procedures where they will be asked to spot deliberate mistakes and identify errors/issues.
• The workshops will report on issues such as inter/intra observer variability
• We will also focus on how to harmonise body composition data from different methods e.g. BMI to DEXA Body Fat and within methods GE DEXA vs Hologic DEXA.

Assessing growth (Growth charts and growth models in lifecourse epidemiology)

• How to derive and interpret growth indicators using reference data (percentiles and z scores).
• Modelling growth from cross-sectional and longitudinal data using LMS vs SITAR.
• Underline the limitations of some of those methods.
• Workshop using LMS and SITAR with practice datasets.

Assessing Sarcopenia in the presence of aging and obesity

• Definition of sarcopenia.
• Description of direct and indirect tools/methods available to assess the presence of sarcopenia.
• Limitations of some of the proposed approaches.
• Case studies – examples from NHANES and UK Biobank studies.

The webinar is delivered using Moodle, which will host pre-recorded talks, demonstrations, practicals and quizzes. Live Q & A sessions will also be organised via Zoom. Delegates will be able to submit questions before and during live sessions. Materials and talks will be available for downloads for future reference.