Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Highland Dancing Shoes

My research assistant job can be unpredictable, but in a good way!  Today, two brothers came in to the office, but just one is in our study.  "Mum" explained that the family goes for Highland dancing practice each weekend.  What on earth is that? I thought to myself.

So, rather than wait until I could Google it, I asked about the dancing.  Instead of an explanation, the boys took turns showing me some moves.  It was awesome!  Here's a link to some girls Highland dancing, but the boys were doing it a little differently.  They both skipped around in a circle alternating hitting one heel with the other foot.  I was pretty impressed.

The other thing I found interesting is that the boy in our study had a BMI that put him in the "orange" zone (overweight), but his waist:height ratio was perfectly "green" (average/"normal").  I plotted the results and went over them with his mom.  She stated that he's "dense" because he's muscular from exercise.  I thought the same thing, but kept it to myself - I try to be matter of fact when I go over the results and refer families to their primary care physician ("GP" here) if they have questions.  When parents start speculating about why the results are the way they are, I just smile and nod.

I've long been suspicious of using body mass index to predict health risks.  In this study though, for the most part, kids are usually the same color zone for both comparisons (age/BMI and height/waist circumference).  When I plot results for families and those points on both graphs fall in the same colored zone, I don't think much about it... it seems straight forward... if families keep following their current lifestyle, I'd guess that those zones will both stay green, orange, or red down the road.

But, what will be down the road for a child whose BMI/age is "orange" and his waist:height is "green"?  I'm not sure... I'd usually be happy to speculate, but I'm still recovering from a head cold.  Anything I come up with risks being gobble-di-gook (a.k.a. nonsense).

What do you think?

5 comments:

  1. there is controversy in the research regarding the use of BMI, particularly in obesity research. More often, people are starting to use adipose tissue measures as well.

    See: Indirect estimates of body composition are useful for groups but unreliable in individuals. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2000 Sep;24(9):1145-52. PMID:11033983.
    or
    Reduction of misclassification rates of obesity by body mass index using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scans to improve subsequent prediction of per cent fat mass in a Caucasian population. Clinical Obesity, 1, 69–76. doi: 10.1111/j.1758-8111.2011.00016.x

    hope this is useful!
    Melissa
    PS- love your blog. I'm from dunedin but in italy at the moment, your pictures make me homesick!

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  2. Melissa, thanks for the articles, I'm happy to take a look at them because they sound interesting! SO happy you're reading my blog. Enjoy Italy - hope they're not getting the heat wave that other parts of the world are experiencing at the moment (New Zealand clearly being excluded). =)

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  3. Hi there. Stumbled upon your blog as part of my usual search for Highland Dancing news. I work at the University and have been involved in Highland Dancing for years. I was a competitive highland dancer for a large part of my young life and even won New Zealand championships. Like a lot of dancers at that level I was very particular about my diet, exercised daily and danced constantly. However I always had a high BMI (24 was lowest I think I ever got). I flatter myself to think that it was due to the dancing which does encourage the development of a lot of muscle mass. Probably a genetic link as well. The style of highland dancing taught in New Zealand varies from most other countries due to historical reasons (which would take forever to explain). That is why what you found on the internet would not quite fit with what you saw that day. Good luck with the study.

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    Replies
    1. Hi there! Thanks for making a comment on my little blog. =) I really appreciate you sharing how you find it; I'm always curious about that!

      That's so cool that you work at the University! I've been loving being a student here.

      Congrats on your dancing accomplishments! It was great fun to watch the boys dance - they really seemed to enjoy it a lot. I wondered if the style changed from country to country and now I know that it does, thanks!

      Delete
  4. Hi there. Stumbled upon your blog as part of my usual search for Highland Dancing news. I work at the University and have been involved in Highland Dancing for years. I was a competitive highland dancer for a large part of my young life and even won New Zealand championships. Like a lot of dancers at that level I was very particular about my diet, exercised daily and danced constantly. However I always had a high BMI (24 was lowest I think I ever got). I flatter myself to think that it was due to the dancing which does encourage the development of a lot of muscle mass. Probably a genetic link as well. The style of highland dancing taught in New Zealand varies from most other countries due to historical reasons (which would take forever to explain). That is why what you found on the internet would not quite fit with what you saw that day. Good luck with the study.

    ReplyDelete