Children’s Experiences of Illness
Roger Cooter, John Pickstone in Medicine in the Twentieth Century, 2020
Other new technologies included the weighing chair and the stadiometer (an instrument for measuring height) as physicians began to assess the development of normal children. Since the late nineteenth century, isolated doctors had measured groups of children in order to compare racial and socio-economic groups. By the second decade of the twentieth century, however, all American and many British children were routinely weighed on scales and measured against wall-mounted tape-measures. The results were plotted onto charts that related their growth to previously measured groups of children. The impetus for this standardization was the belief that poorly grown and under-nourished children could be identified and aided before they became sick and, concomitantly, that without such assessments and the interventions they provoked, these youngsters would later be unfit for work or for military service in the case of boys, and for motherhood, in the case of girls.
Assessment – Anthropometrics and Functional Status
Jennifer Doley, Mary J. Marian in Adult Malnutrition, 2023
Height, recorded in inches or centimeters, is a standard measure to judge growth in children, adult height, changes in height related to aging or disease, and as a factor in numerous calculations such as BMI.7 Adult height should be measured and re-measured periodically using a stadiometer (see Figure 5.1), as patient-reported height is often inaccurate and adults frequently lose height with age. Standing height should be measured with the head, shoulder, buttocks, and heels touching the wall or back of the stadiometer. Eyes are straight ahead, shoulders relaxed, arms at the side, legs straight with knees together, and feet flat on the ground and almost together.8 If the patient has kyphosis or other body conformation that restricts the ability to touch the back of the stadiometer or wall, the clinician can measure the best they are able. Should the adult be unable to stand on a scale, other approaches to obtaining height are available and can be used as surrogates for standing height.9,10 Should height be stated and cannot be verified by measurement, documentation should include “reported” or “estimated”.
Short Stature
Michael B O’Neill, Michelle Mary Mcevoy, Alf J Nicholson, Terence Stephenson, Stephanie Ryan in Diagnosing and Treating Common Problems in Paediatrics, 2017
Standing height is measured using a Harpenden stadiometer however supine length is used for children under 18 months of age. The stadiometer should be regularly calibrated and used by a trained professional. The child must be positioned with their legs straight and feet together and flat on the ground. Their heels should touch the back plate of the stadiometer. Their buttocks and, if possible, scapula should touch the backboard, with their arms loosely at their side. The child’s head must be positioned with the lower margins of the orbit in the same horizontal plane as the external auditory meati. Gentle traction should be applied to the mastoid process as the child breathes in and out. The measurement should be recorded from the scale at the end of expiration.
Can 5 minutes of repetitive prone press-ups and sustained prone press-ups following a period of spinal loading reverse spinal shrinkage?
Published in Physiotherapy Theory and Practice, 2019
Michelle M Munster, Jean-Michel Brismée, Phillip S Sizer, Kevin Browne, Birendra Dewan, Amber Litke, John L Pape, Stéphane Sobczak
Different means of measuring spinal height are available, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Boos, Wallin, Aebi, and Boesch, 1996) and radiography (Frobin et al., 1997). However, MRI is very expensive and radiography exhibits radiation effects. Another measurement option, stadiometry, is inexpensive and noninvasive (Stothart and McGill, 2000). A stadiometer is a device used for measuring overall spinal height change while controlling posture, with about 40% of these height changes attributed from the lumbar IVD segments (Kourtis et al., 2004). Stadiometry has been shown to be reliable (Healey, Fowler, Burden, and McEwan, 2005; Magnusson et al., 1996; Pennell et al., 2008) and valid (Kanlayanaphotporn, Williams, Fulton, and Trott, 2002; Kourtis et al., 2004) for measuring spinal height changes. Stadiometry has been utilized to measure spinal height changes with asymptomatic (Gerke et al., 2011; Kourtis et al., 2004; Magnusson, Pope, and Hansson, 1995; Owens et al., 2009) and symptomatic subjects diagnosed with degenerative lumbar disease (Vieira-Pellenz et al., 2014).
Age at menarche and cancer risk at adulthood
Published in Annals of Human Biology, 2018
André O. Werneck, Manuel J. Coelho-e-Silva, Camila S. Padilha, Enio R. V. Ronque, Edilson S. Cyrino, Célia L. Szwarcwald, Danilo R. Silva
Participants reported their own chronological age in years and details of their highest educational qualification were used to create three education status categories (no academic qualifications; high school; and more than high school). Skin colour was self-reported and the information dichotomised (white and not white). Leisure-time physical activity was assessed by asking participants if they had (no/yes) performed any sport or exercise in the preceding 3 months and how many days per week and hours and minutes per day they usually performed sport or physical exercise. Participants who presented data that totalled (weekly frequency multiplied by daily time) ≥ 150 minutes of physical activity per week were classified as active. Participants further reported how many days per week they usually smoked tobacco; participants were classified as smokers if they engaged in tobacco use ≥1 day week. Waist circumference and body mass index were adopted as obesity indicators. A portable stadiometer, a portable electronic weighing-machine and anthropometric tape were used to perform the measures. Trained staff collected all measures. Finally, menopause was evaluated through a subjective question asking if the subject had already passed through menopause (no/yes).
Ural Eye and Medical Study: description of study design and methodology
Published in Ophthalmic Epidemiology, 2018
Mukharram Bikbov, Rinat R Fayzrakhmanov, Gyulli Kazakbaeva, Jost B Jonas
In all subjects, the pulse, arterial blood pressure, body height, body weight, and circumference of the hip and waist were measured. The blood pressure was measured with the participant sitting for at least 5 minutes. The study participants had refrained from smoking and drinking of coffee, tea, or alcohol for at least 3 hours. In addition, any exercise was not performed for the last 30 minutes prior to the blood pressure measurements. An automatic tonometer (OMRON M2, Omron Co. Kyoto, Japan) was used, and the cuff size was chosen according to the measured circumference of the upper arm. Blood pressure at the ankle was determined using the OMRONM6 device (Omron Co. Kyoto, Japan). The body height was determined in a standardized manner with the shoes routinely removed. The subjects were asked to stand upright as much as possible and with the head raised upright as much as possible. We used a stadiometer as measuring instrument. The floor was completely even. We did not take into account, nor did we correct for age-related reductions in height of subjects, who reportedly were taller during their middle-age. Additionally, we determined the body weight and calculated the body mass index (BMI) as ratio of body weight (measured in kilogram) divided by the square of the body height (measured in meters). The handgrip strength was measured using a dynamometer (dynamometer-dk 140, Russia).