THE NGDS PILOT PROJECT UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI

The NGDS Pilot Project

University of Karachi

½ About the NGDS Pilot Project ½ The NGDS Team ½ Subprojects ½ Results ½ Publications ½ Links ½ Homepage of Project Director ½

The NGDS Pilot Project URL: http://ngds-ku.org OR http://www.uok.edu.pk/projects/ngds
The NGDS Pilot Project e-mail:
info(at the rate of)ngds-ku.org
Data collected on over 2500 children since 1998.

Contact
Appointments
Dedication
Mission Statement
Background
Chronological Developments
Resources
Photo Gallery
Accomplishments

Contact

Professor Dr. Syed Arif Kamal
Project Director, the NGDS Pilot Project
Head, Mathematical Biology Group
Paper Mail (Address for Correspondence):
PO Box 8406, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, PAKISTAN.
e-mail: kamal(at the rate of)ngds-ku.org
Homepage: http://ngds-ku.org/kamal

Appointments

e-mail OR Call: 9926 1300-6 ext. 2380 Best Time to Call
From outside Karachi, but not outside Pakistan:
021 + 9926 1300-6 ext. 2380
From outside Pakistan: 0092 + 21 + 9926 1300-6 ext. 2380
Pakistan Standard Time: GMT + 5h

Informed consent Forms for Participation in:
The NGDS Pilot Project PDF Word
The Sibling Growth Pilot Project PDF Word
(to read PDF files, first open Acrobat Reader)

Directions to reach the Syed Firdous Growth and Imaging Laboratory at University of Karachi are available on homepage of Project Director

Dedication

DEAR PARENTS!

Do you know that:

Your child becomes as much as
2 cm taller in the morning as compared to bedtime

Scoliosis (curvature of the spinal column) develops quietly, without any pain, and is often accidentally discovered

Untreated scoliosis may require surgery involving delicate nerves
(the patients may get paralyzed)

Scoliosis may be detected at an early stage by moiré technique without
using harmful X rays

A child grows very slowly just before
reaching puberty (most of the
mothers bring their kids to doctors
during this period)

Regular growth monitoring can result
in saving lives of some children.

Observing the way your child walks
can give clues to underlying
health problems

Please visit the NGDS Photo Gallery

Growth-and-Obersity Profiles
of Children

Would you like to know beforehand
how tall and how heavy your child
could become as an adult?

Your children between the ages of
4-8 years may qualify to participate
in Sibling Growth Pilot Project

Students who are going to write their
O-Level Examinations may be
nominated for ETRPP
by their school principals

During the first 10 years, whatever one teaches a child is going to
make a lasting impression. This site is dedicated to children of the third millennium, in order to establish communication with the parents, the teachers and the school-health professionals, so that the next generation grows up with a sound mind in a sound body, capable of making independent decisions based on creative thinking and critical analysis of all the factors involved.

Mission Statement

The NGDS Pilot Project is a goodwill and a public-service endeavor conducted for the care and the development of young persons to prepare them mentally, physically, emotionally and morally for rewarding careers in the civil and the military services.

Background

A team of University of Karachi headed by Professor Dr. Syed Arif Kamal has undertaken a pilot project to establish "National Growth and Developmental Standards (NGDS)" for the Pakistani children under the directives of Governor Sindh/Chancellor, University of Karachi. Design of this project is undertaken after extensive contacts with local and international experts.

Healthy 3-10-year old children, studying in schools run by the Armed Forces, are measured and screened for anemia, cardiac problems and scoliosis major causes for growth retardation). The NGDS Team has detected stunting (short height-for-age) as well as a number of cases involving scoliosis. Stunting, if detected in preteen years, could be treated by a combination of sleep habits, diet, exercise and, in extreme cases, by hormone therapy. Scoliosis, if left untreated, produces cosmetic deformities and effects vital organs (e. g., heart, lungs) during adolescence. If detected early, it could be arrested with a combination of braces and exercises. Most important of all, delicate surgery involving spinal nerves may be avoided in most cases.

Chronological Developments

Since 1998, the NGDS Pilot Project is being successfully implemented at Army Public School, 'O' Levels, Karachi, Bahria College, NORE 1, MT Khan Road, Karachi and Fazaia (PAF) Degree College, Base 'Faisal', Karachi, representative institutions of each wing of the Armed Forces of Pakistan. The anthropometric measurements taken are sitting height, standing height, mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC), shoulder width and weight. Data have been collected on over 2500 children since the inception of this project. The children in these institutions are in a better-than-average health and represent a national sample. Starting this year Beacon Light Academy, 'O' Levels, Gulshan-é-Iqbal, Karachi has, also, started Growth-and-Obesity Monitoring of students of KG class.

Research carried out by the NGDS Team has been reported in international journal as well as various conferences, focusing IT, telemedicine, health-information technology, complexity science, early childhood care and development. Papers were presented in the Sixteenth International Biennial Conference of Pakistan Pediatric Association, Karachi, February 14-17, 2002, National Telemedicine Conference, organized by Technology Resource Mobilization Unit (TReMU), Ministry of Science and Technology, Islamabad, June 22, 2002 and the Aga Khan University National Research Symposium: Early Childhood Care and Development, Karachi, September 23-24, 2002. A seminar entitled "The NGDS Pilot Project: Documenting and Modeling Growth of the Pakistani Children" was conducted for Postgraduate Training Program, Department of Pediatrics, the Aga Khan University Medical College, Karachi, on April 24, 2002. Seminars were, also, given for Departments of Pediatrics of the Nishtar Medical College, Multan (Punjab), on March 22, 2004, Frontier Medical College, Abottabad (NWFP) on August 27, 2005, Dow University of Heath Sciences, Karachi on October 26, 2005, respectively. On November 10, 11 and 13, 2006, faculty and students of Department of Special Education, University of Karachi visited Growth Laboratory (now renamed as "The Syed Firdous Growth and Imaging Laboratory") located in Department of Mathematics. Training was given to obtain anthropometric measurements of special children. On October 28, 2008 a team from French Embassy in Islamabad came to see the Syed Firdous laboratory and discussed possible projects for collaboration.

On March 23, 2002, the then President of Pakistan announced the launch of TAWANA PAKISTAN (Urdu version of "Strong Pakistan"), a similar project for growth monitoring of rural girl child of Pakistan. The methods, the techniques, the instruments and the softwares developed by the NGDS Team were demonstrated to the key officials of this project. The NGDS-height-measurement system was adopted for Tawana Pakistan anthropometry studies. The Project Director, also, trained master anthropometrists of Tawana Pakistan. On March 22, 2010, the NGDS Team had the honor to jump one-step ahead of rest of world. The height, mass and MUAC measurements can, now to carried out to accuracies of 0.01 cm (world standard 0.1 cm), 0.01 kg (world standard 0.1 kg) and 0.01 cm (world standard 0.1 cm), respectively.

Resources

Article for Parents: Growth Monitoring of Primary-School Children PDF
Article for Parents: How to Guard Against Curvatures of the Spinal Column in Children?    Printable Version PDF
Article for Parents: Moiré Fringe Topography for the Detection of Scoliosis in Children   Printable Version PDF
Article for Parents: What Can You Learn from the Way Your Child Walks?   Printable Version PDF
Original Paper: An Investigation of Growth Profiles of the Pakistani Children PDF
Original Paper: Growth-and-Obesity Profiles of Children of Karachi using Box-Interpolation Method PDF
Training Resource: Manual for Obtaining Anthropometric Measurements PDF
Handout for Teachers: Is Your Child Growing All Right? PDF

Photo Gallery

Please visit the NGDS Photo Gallery.

Accomplishments

During the course of this project the NGDS Team has developed:

a)	Human-rights and ethical standards for conducting a research project involving minor subjects and parents with little or no education
b)	Inexpensive, indigenously-built anthropometric instruments
c)	Standardized-anthropometric techniques for obtaining reliable and reproducible measurements (manual prepared, containing step-by-step procedures as well as sources of error and hazard/injury)
d)	Methods to generate growth-and-obesity profiles of children based on heights of biological father and biological mother, without using X rays
e)	Moiré fringe topography apparatus (a stereophotogrammetric technique) for somatotyping and screening of trunk deformities

Softwares are being developed to predict adult height, adult weight, stunting (short height for age), wasting (lesser weight-for-height) and obesity based on the standards released by CDC (Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, USA).

Cutoff height for induction into the Armed Forces of Pakistan:

Boys: 5 feet 4 inches (162.56 cm)

Girls: 5 feet 2 inches (157.48 cm)

Through the power of mathematics, the NGDS team may give an estimate of adult height and adult weight for a child, who is, just, 3- or 4-year old.

Dear Dr. Kamal,

Thank you for your kind words and encouragement,…... Your paper (Full Text of Journal Paper PDF) is, indeed, very interesting and I am discussing it with my colleagues.

Thank you once again for taking the time out and making your notable contribution.

Shamsh Kassim-Lakha, S. I.
President
The Aga Khan University
November 18, 2002

Updated: December 1, 2011 (1000h GMT)

½ About the NGDS Pilot Project ½ The NGDS Team ½ Subprojects ½ Results ½ Publications ½ Links ½ Homepage of Project Director ½