Dami Adejuwon
Project: Assessing the validity and reliability of novel 3D optical body scanning to evaluate body composition in adolescents
“One valuable piece of advice I’ve received is that the best way to get more comfortable with something is to practise and make mistakes. I was nervous to assist with physical exams in the clinic, as I had not practised this skill with children and had not used endocrine-specific skills. I started by doing simple things I was comfortable with, like blood pressures, and observing the resident and my supervisor, and kept practising. By my next time shadowing in the clinic, doing physical exams felt easy.”
Summary: Body composition — the measurement of muscle, fat, bone and water — is critical for assessing overall health and tailoring medical care. However, gold-standard measurement methods are expensive, require training and are difficult to access, especially in remote communities. This study evaluates two types of 3D optical body scanners, a new, quick and non-invasive way to measure body composition. One uses a camera and rotating platform; the other is a smartphone application. They have been tested in adults; however, we don’t know how valid or reliable they are for use in children or teens.
We will recruit 94 children aged 10-18, with and without obesity, and measure their body composition multiple times using multiple devices. This will help determine the reliability of each device and allow us to compare the validity of 3D optical systems to current gold-standard methods.
If the 3D devices are valid and reliable, this will support their use as an accessible alternative to current methods. This may improve pediatric health screening and help reduce barriers to care, especially in rural communities where expensive methods for measuring body composition are not available. It may also help doctors detect obesity-related health risks earlier and provide personalized prevention and treatment plans.
Dami Adejuwon was supervised by Dr. Andrea Haqq in the University of Alberta Department of Pediatrics, and her WCHRI summer studentship was funded by the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation. She is enrolled in the U of A’s doctor of medicine program.
Read more about WCHRI’s training awards for students at all levels and generous grants for researchers. See the rest of the 2026 summer studentship recipients here.
