Francis Holway measures of all athletes at River Plate CLub (23 sports, -1000 athletes) April - June 2008 in Buenos Aires Argentina. The first photo shows Club Atlético River Plate Monumental Stadium. The second photo shows Marcelo Pudelka, dietitian and Level 3 anthropometrist, measuring a player.

More details about this project are coming soon.

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Dr Anup Adhikari runs different projects on national sports camps as part of his job with the National Sports Institutes in India and Bangladesh. Every year he oversees the talent identification program where more than seven hundred children are measured every year.

Physiologic and anthropometric evaluation of national players of India (since 1990).  Dr Anup Adhikari was attached with the Sports Authority of India from 1990 to 2000. During this period national and international players were evaluated for physiologic and anthropometric profiles.
 
Talent identification program at Bangladesh Institute of Sports (BKSP) Bangladesh  (2001 to 2007).
The talent identification program was a major project for the Bangladesh Institute of Sports (BKSP) to identify and select talented children for different games.  Anthropometric profiles of 4,310 children boys (3,589) and girls (721) were completed for somatotyping and body composition. Measurement of the girls for anthropometric profiles was very significant as it is very difficult to measure the women in a conservative country like Bangladesh.  Physiologic and anthropometric measurements were conducted by Dr Anup Adhikari. Associates attached with the project measurement were Nahida Pervin (Research Associate, Exercise Physiology Laboratory, BKSP) and coaches of different games and sports of BKSP.

Anthropometric evaluation of Myanmar national hockey team (2005).
In June 2005 the physiologic and anthropometric evaluation of the Myanmar national Hockey squad (n=20) was conducted in the exercise physiology laboratory of the Bangladesh Institute of Sports (BKSP) in Dhaka. Somatotype and body composition were derived from the measurements. Investigators attached with the project were Dr Anup Adhikari (exercise physiologist and anthropometrist), Nay Tan (team coach of Myanmar hockey team), Nurul Islam and Kowsar Ali (national hockey coaches of Bangladesh) and Nahida Pervin (Research Associate of exercise physiology laboratory, BKSP)

Bangladesh sports team profiles
A number of sports team profile studies have been conducted by Dr Anup Adhikari.

• Project for anthropometric evaluation of Bangladesh national athletes from 2002 to 2007. Anthropometric profiles of 25 athletes at the national athletic camp were conducted for three days each year in the exercise physiology laboratory of the Bangladesh Institute of Sports (BKSP). Dr Anup Adhikari was the principal investigator, Nahida Pervin the research associate, and Kitab Ali and Nazrul Islam Rumy as national coaches.
• Anthropometric evaluation of Bangladesh National Judo Team (2005 and 2006). Fifteen members of the national judo squad (7 female and 8 male) of Bangladesh were measured for somatotype and body composition evaluation from 14th to 18th Dec 2005 and 1st June to 5th June 2006.  Dr Anup Adhikari was the principal investigator, Nahida Pervin the research associate, Omomi Tetsuo from Japan as the foreign coach and Sabbir Ahmed as the local coach.
• Anthropometric evaluation of Bangladesh national football team (2005). Members of the Bangladesh national football team were measured from 27th to 31st Sept 2005 for physiologic and anthropometric profiles prior to an international tournament. Dr Anup Adhikari was the principal investigator. Other investigators were team physician Debasish Chaudhury, and Diego Crusiani from Argentina.
• Project for AFC-Under 13 football team of Bangladesh (2005). Anthropometrical profiles were measured from 1st March to 3rd March 2005 at the Bangladesh Institute of Sports (BKSP). Investigators were Dr Anup Adhikari as exercise physiologist and anthropometrist, and Debasish Chaudhury as team physician.
• Bangladesh national under 13 cricket team evaluation for anthropometric profiles (2006). Twenty-six sub-junior cricketers of Bangladesh were measured for their different anthropometrical profiles by Dr Anup Adhikari.

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Project on Calcutta street children for their anthropometrical profiles (2007).
A project is currently underway on the anthropometric profiles of street children of Calcutta, India. A pilot study was completed on 20 street children. The projects investigators are Dr Anup Adhikari and Anindita Das.

More details about these projects are coming soon.

Asst Prof Pat Wong has conducted research projects in obesity employing ISAK standards. For more information on these project contact Pat at PESS Academic Group, 5-03-28, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616, (Dir) +65-6790 3693, (Fax) +65-6896 9260, Email: pat.wong@nie.edu.sg

More details about these projects are coming soon.

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Proyecto deporte social funded by Secretaria de deportes de la nación Argentina

In April 2007, the Canadian Institute of Child Health (CICH) completed an Anthropometry demonstration study focused on measuring children aged 0-12 years of age. The demonstration project had two main components: a) a literature scan to determine what had been done by others; b) the development of methodology to measure children aged 0-12 years of age to determine the feasibility of taking different measurements, appropriate measurement tools and techniques, sampling and data analysis. The purpose of doing this demonstration study was to determine what would be appropriate for a larger national anthropometry study. The results of the demonstration project can be found at: http://www.cich.ca/PDFFiles/CICH%20Anthro%20Demo%20Final.pdf

For further details about this study contact Regina De La Campa Regina De La Campa, Project Coordinator, Child Health and the Environment, Canadian Institute of Child Health, 384 Bank Street, Suite 300, Ottawa, ON K2G 6X1, Tel: (613) 230-88 38 ext. 229, Fax: (613) 230-6654, www.cich.ca

Professor Emiritus J.E. Lindsay Carter will soon be providing details here of several studies such as:

• The Mexico City Olympics Anthropmetry study in 1968.
  

More details about these projects are coming soon.

Dr Hans de Ridder has provided a summary of the longitudinal study in Africa by Monyeki and Kempterwith with 2200 subjects titled "The longitudinal development and tracking of anthropometric risk indicators for under nutrition in rural south african children: the Ellisras longitudinal growth and health study (ELS)". The study will soon be published in a book on innovative SAF studies (SAF editors).

The desire of the South African government to improve the health of rural peoples requires that adequate baseline data be made  available to combat the emerging chronic disease of lifestyle as they are becoming a major  health burden in our communities today (Chabalala-Msimang, 2005). In November 1996, a longitudinal study  was initiated to monitor the growth, health and life-style to a group of  children in the Ellisras rural area.

This longitudinal study is designed to answer the following research questions:

• 1. How do rural South African boys and girls grow and develop with respect to their physical and psycho-social well-being from age 3 to 25 years?
• 2. How healthy are these children and how healthy is their lifestyle with respect to diet, physical activity, smoking behavior and alcohol consumption?
• 3.What are the development over time  of biological and behavioural risk factors for CVD and/or diabetes  in children from rural South Africa?
• 4.What are the development over time of serum level of a variety of biochemical and haematological parameters related to CVD and or diabetes in a rural part of South Africa?
• 5.What are the relationships over time between lifestyle changes and health outcomes in this longitudinal measured rural children in South Africa?

Ellisras is a deep rural area situated within the north-western area of the Limpopo Province, South Africa. The population is about 50 000 people residing in 42 settlements. These villages are approximately 70 km from the Ellisras town (23° 40S 27° 44W), now known as Lephalale, adjacent to the Botswana border.  The Iscor coal mine and Matimba electricity power station are the major sources of employment for many of the Ellisras residents, whereas the remaining workforce is involved in subsistence farming and cattle rearing, while a minority is in education and the civil service.

The Ellisras Longitudinal Study (ELS) followed a cluster sampling method (Monyeki et al., 2000; 2005). In brief, the study was undertaken at 22 schools (10 pre-school and 12 primary schools) randomly selected from 68 schools within the Ellisras area. Birth records were obtained from the principals of each school. Only those records that were verified against health clinic records were used to determine the age of each potential participant. Each of the 22 selected schools was assigned a grade with the expectation that most of the children in a particular age category (i.e. 3,4,…9,10) would be found in that grade. A total of 2200 subjects (520 pre-school and 1680 primary school) children at baseline were followed from November 1996 to May 2005. Measurements were collected in May and November each year. 1.05% death among ELS subjects constitute permanent loss to follow-up since 17.5% subjects lost due to teenage pregnancy, illness, migration to urban areas, school dropout mostly to local White farmers are temporary as the subjects rejoined the study thereafter. A total of 1792 subjects aged 12 to 19 years are currently enrolled in the study. Table 1 presents the data already collected in the sample from 1996 to date.

Table 1: Completed data collected since 1996 in the Ellisras Longitudinal Sample

Survey	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2005
Anthropometrical measurement	*	**	**	**	**	**	*	**
Blood pressure				**	**	**	*	*
Diet				*		*
Socio-economic status				*
Glucose tolerance						*
Learning environment						*	*
Educational achievement (Maths and English)						*	*	*
Aptitudes tests (IQ test)								*
Tanner Scale						*		*
Questionnaire on menarche								*
Physical Activity							*
Fitness					*	*	*	*
Smoking									*

* one Survey, ** two survey

A total of 7 mini-thesis for honors degree,  three Masters degree- University of the North (Limpopo), one PhD, Potchefstroom University for CHE, and  6 Medical students research projects, VU Medical University Center, Amsterdam - Netherlands, have completed their studies in the ELS. Two PhD students from the ELS defended their degree at Vu Medical University during September 2006. Numerous peer review publications, national and international conference presentation from the ELS was completed in the past decade.

References

• Chabalala-Msimang Manto (2005) Budget speech by Minister of health 8 April 2005. South African National Parliament, Cape Town.
  Monyeki KD, Cameron N, Getz B. (2000) Growth and nutritional status of rural South African children 3-10 years old: The Ellisras Growth Study.  American Journal of Human Biology, 12: 42–9.
• Monyeki MA, LLJ Koppes, HCG Kemper, KD Monyeki, AL Toriola and AE Pienaar, JWR Twisk. (2005) Body composition and physical fitness of undernourished South African rural primary school children, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 59:877-883.