MyFiziq’s partner venture study highlights an “unseen epidemic” of obesity in Indonesia

MyFiziq Limited (ASX:MYQ) has today announced that Body Composition Technologies Pte Ltd (BCT), its 54% owned joint venture partner, has had a second peer-reviewed study published.

The study, published in the Obesity Research & Clinical Practise Journal is titled: Obesity and visceral fat in Indonesia: An unseen epidemic? A study using iDXA and surrogate anthropometric measures.

The publication spotlights obesity as an “unseen epidemic” in Indonesia with much higher levels of body fat and internal visceral fat compared to Caucasian populations, and this trend was further emphasised in younger age groups.

Data for this study was collected in collaboration with doctors and clinicians at Eka Hospital, Pekanbaru, who collected over 2,600 participant’s body composition using a medical gold-standard iDXA machine.

The machine classified participants using the clinical standard of body fat percentage as normal, overweight, or obese, and these results were then compared with classifications using the outdated method of Body Mass Index (BMI).

Results of the study exhibited that BMI misclassified 45% of participants compared to iDXA body fat percentage, hence highlighting the importance of using the later method to classify obesity.

Using body fat percentage, 72.3% of Males, and 63.0% of Females were classified as overweight and obese.

A quote from the study added: “The health risks facing Indonesia are likely underestimated when using BMI in isolation, which underestimates obesity prevalence by over 40 % when compared with body fat percentage.”

Waist circumference and waist to hip ratio identified 91-99% of Indonesians with high levels of visceral fat mass, highlighting the importance of using waist circumference to screen and identify people with high levels of visceral fat.

iDXA body composition and anthropometric data of an Indonesian cohort this diverse has never been published before, and BCT’s rigorous and scientific approach to the analysis of this data is clearly demonstrated in the publication.

BCT believes that their developed platform would provide a valuable tool to assist developing countries’ governments to intervene with appropriate public health initiatives to screen populations.

The company’s technology is focused on developing a cost effective, easily accessible, and reliable smartphone-based body composition and anthropometric measurement tool for governments, insurers, medical organisations and the medical research markets.

BCT aids in users identifying, classifying and monitoring some of the primary markets of chronic diseases, to help in reducing the spiralling global healthcare costs and improving the quality of life for billions of people worldwide.

Vlado Bosnac, CEO/Co-founder of MyFiziq commented, “This is the second publication we have achieved in as many months and a tick in the right box for both our data and approach to assisting governments and healthcare organisations better understand the risks that exist in their populations.

“Our intention is to show these organisations how to use the data to create treatments and prevention regimes. This data not only identifies a very high level of risk of chronic disease in the population, but more importantly has identified a previously invisible potential obesity epidemic that could have a long-term negative impact on Indonesia’s health care system.

“The team has not only identified these issues but will now look to distribute the findings and our in-device capabilities to identify, monitor and treat these health risks.”

About MYQ

MYQ has developed a patented mobile application that allows users to track body shapes and dimensions while performing everyday activities.

The application measures body fat indirectly through machine learning and body shape analysis and measures a person's total body fat mass, such as BMI, waist circumference, waist to hip ratio and waist to height ratio.

MyFiziq simplifies the collection of these measurements and removes the margin of human error present in traditional methods.

The gyroscope, front camera, camera burst mode, speaker, screen and light sensors in a smart phone are all used in conjunction with each other to obtain a set of multiple front and side pictures in a single user experience, privately in your own home.

The app delivers 97+% accurate body measurements, with a repeatability of 98% and has been designed to fit snugly into a partner's third party technology.