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The NGDS Pilot Project University of Karachi |
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½ About the NGDS Pilot Project
½ The NGDS Team
½ Subprojects
½ Results
½ Publications
½ Links
½ Homepage of Project Director
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The NGDS Pilot Project URL: https://ngds-ku.org |
DEAR PARENTS! Do you know that: |
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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. |
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Mission Statement
The NGDS Pilot Project is goodwill and 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 Prof. 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. The NGDS Pilot Project was designed
after extensive contacts with local and international experts, complying with
all ethical and human-right standards applicable in this part of the world. The
Project Director is Convener of Sub-Committee (Academics) of Transparency
International Pakistan and, also, participates in activities of Human Right
Commission of Pakistan.
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 (lesser
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 3000 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 2011, Beacon Light Academy, 'O' Levels,
Gulshan-é-Iqbal, Karachi has, also, started Growth-and-Obesity Monitoring of students of KG
class, who are being followed-up, yearly, to generate their Growth-and-Obesity
Roadmaps.
Research carried out by the NGDS Team has been reported in international
journals as well as various conferences, focusing IT, telemedicine,
health-information technology, complexity science, early childhood care and
development.
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 be
carried out by our team 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.
Some of the recent contributions in modeling of child growth are introduction
of innovative concepts: (i) optimal mass, (ii)
quantitative estimates of wasting (lesser weight-for-height) and obesity
(excess weight-for-height), statuses
(pertaining-to-mass) — the ratio of absolute difference of mass and optimal
mass to optimal mass, expressed as percentage, (iii) estimated-adult
BMI — BMI stands for body-mass index, (iv)
replacement of height (growth) velocities and rates of gain/loss of mass by interpretation
of height- and mass-percentile trajectories, (v)
quantitative estimates of stunting and tallness (excess height-for-age), statuses
(pertaining-to-height) — the ratio of absolute difference of height and
current-age-mid-parental height to current-age-mid-parental height, expressed
as percentage, (vi) pseudo gain
of height/mass, (vii) quantitative
recommendations and their
month-wise breakdown to gain height (cm/month) and gain/lose
mass (kg/month) — these recommendations are explained through worked examples (PDF), (viii) energy-channelization
problem, which explained coexistence of wasting and tallness as
well as obesity and stunting and (ix) puberty-induced
energy-channelization (PDF document). Numerical examples (PDF) illustrate these concepts (and other existing concepts, e.
g., BMI, physical loss of height/mass, under-nutrition — coexistence
of wasting and stunting, over-nutrition
— coexistence of tallness and obesity, acute malnutrition — severe wasting and stunting).
Recently, CDC Growth Charts and CDC Growth Tables,
representing heights and masses of boys and girls, have been extended to
include extreme (0.01th, 0.1th, 1st,
99th, 99.9th and 99.99th)
percentiles. In addition, mathematical formulae are given to even more limiting
cases.
Resources
General-Interest Article
Anthromathematics — A New Branch of Mathematics PDF
Informative Articles
for Parents
Growth-and-Nutritional-Status Monitoring of Primary-School Children
PDF
Growth-and-Obesity Monitoring of Primary-School Children (Armed-Forces
Institutions) PDF
How to Guard Against Curvatures of
the Spinal Column in Children? Printable Version PDF
Moiré Fringe Topography for the
Detection of Scoliosis in Children Printable Version PDF
What Can You Learn from the Way
Your Child Walks? Printable Version PDF
Guideline Articles for Parents
Suggestions for Increasing Height
PDF
Guidelines for Optimal-Weight
Management PDF
Helpful Hints for Overcoming
Vitamin-D Deficiency PDF
Journal Papers for
Researchers/Pediatricians/Nutritionists/Community-Health Scientists
Mathematical Modeling of Scoliosis
Indicators in Growing Children (in press) PDF
Gait Analysis of 7-10-Year-Old
Children of Karachi from Nutritional-Status Perspective PDF
Acute Malnutrition in a Child
Suffering from Cardiac Problems PDF
Optimal-Mass Management in Obese
Children PDF
Hairstyle, Clothing and Footwear
for Gymnastic Activities in the Primary-School Setting PDF
Effective Decision Making for
Presence of Scoliosis PDF
Generating and Validating
Growth-and-Obesity Roadmaps for the Pakistani Children PDF
KJ-Regression Model to Evaluate
Optimal Masses of Extreme Cases PDF
Primary-Physical-Education
Practices in Pakistan and England: Health
and Safety Perspectives PDF
Stunting Induced by Wasting —
Wasting Induced by Stunting: A Case Study PDF
A Method to Generate
Growth-and-Obesity Profiles of Children of Still-Growing Parents PDF
Growth-and-Obesity Profiles of
Children of Karachi using Box-Interpolation Method PDF
An Investigation of Growth Profiles
of the Pakistani Children PDF
Conference Presentations for
Researchers/Pediatricians/Nutritionists/Community-Health Scientists
Growth-and-Obesity
Vector-Roadmaps of Children PDF
Growth-and-Obesity
Enhanced-Roadmaps of Children PDF
Growth-and-Obesity
Roadmaps of Children PDF
Seminar (Sports Day of Government College,
Hyderabad, Pakistan)
Sports
and Anthromathematics PDF
Additional
File PDF (worked examples of quantitative estimates of wasting, obesity,
stunting and tallness, optimal mass, body-mass index (BMI), estimated-adult
BMI, physical losses of height and mass, pseudo-gains of height and mass,
quantitative recommendations for gaining/reducing mass (wasted/obese child),
under-nutrition (coexistence of wasting and stunting), over-nutrition
(coexistence of obesity and tallness), acute malnutrition (severe wasting and
stunting), energy-channelization I (coexistence of wasting and tallness),
energy-channelization II (coexistence of obesity and stunting) and
energy-channelization III (puberty-induced)
Training Resource
Manual for Obtaining
Anthropometric Measurements PDF
Handout for Teachers
Is Your Child Growing All Right? PDF
Reference Documents
Formulae for Assigning Cumulative
Scoliosis-Risk Weightage PDF
Extended Growth Tables and
Extended Growth Charts PDF
Program in Sports and
Anthromathematics
Pedagogical Challenges and
Opportunities in Sport and Anthromathematics (in press) PDF
Photo Gallery
Please visit the NGDS Photo Gallery.
Accomplishments
During the course of this project the NGDS Team has developed:
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a) |
Human-rights
and ethical standards for conducting a research project involving minor
subjects and parents with little or no education |
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b) |
Inexpensive,
indigenously-built anthropometric instruments |
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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) |
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d) |
Methods
to generate Growth-and-Obesity Roadmaps of children based on heights of biological
father and biological mother, without using X rays |
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e) |
Moiré fringe topography apparatus (a
stereophotogrammetric technique) for somatotyping and screening of trunk
deformities |
Softwares have been developed to compute estimated-adult height,
estimated-adult weight, statuses of stunting, wasting and obesity based on the
standards released by CDC (Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA).
Cutoff height for
induction into the Armed Forces of Pakistan:
Boys: 5 feet 4 inches (162.56 cm), corresponding to
percentile value of 2.72.
Girls: 5 feet 2 inches (157.48 cm), corresponding to
percentile value of 19.36.
Through the power of anthromathematics, the NGDS team may
give an estimate of adult height and adult weight for a child, who is, just, 3-
or 4-year old.
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Updated: May 21, 2016 (0000h UTC)
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½ About
the NGDS Pilot Project ½ The
NGDS Team ½ Subprojects ½ Results ½ Publications ½ Links ½ Homepage of Project
Director ½ |
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