UKM to lead study on obesity, NCDs with Oxford University

KUALA LUMPUR - Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) is set to be the first local university to lead an imaging study through a large-scale bone density test (DXA) at the international level through joint research with the University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

The study, which focuses on obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Malaysia, is led by Prof Sarah Lewington from Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford and Assoc. Prof Dr Nor Azian Abdul Murad from UKM’s Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI).

UKM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Ekhwan Toriman said currently, there were no imaging studies through DXA or large-scale MRI in Malaysia to directly measure body fat to enable researchers to understand the relationship between body composition and NCDs such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease.

"UMBI will conduct 6,000 DXA imaging and 100 MRI imaging in collaboration with the Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, UKM and the University of Westminster, UK to assess body composition of participants in this study,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

He said this research collaboration would enable the transfer of technology, especially data analysis methods, and could have a major impact on the Malaysian health system, particularly in the development and use of new body-mass indexes suitable for the Asian population, especially the Malaysian population. - BERNAMA