Aston University in Birmingham has launched the world’s first overweight manikin for medical students.
The new design, called R42, is the brainchild of Professor Liz Moores, who is the deputy dean of the College of Health and Life Sciences at Aston University.
Professor Moores said: “Lots of patients are overweight so it’s useful to have experience with overweight patients.
“As a female obese manikin, this manikin also has large breasts. We want our students to know how to resuscitate people irrespective of body type.”
In the medical field, there are manikins that have different skin tones, ages, and disabilities.
The R42 model is “really important”, said Professor Moores, to enable students to train on life-like manikins.
The R42 manikin was officially launched at the Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare conference in Brighton this year.
The first manikin will be released at Aston University for students before the end of the year, with a second in early 2024.
Obesity
The NHS says one in four adults in the UK are living with obesity, which can severely impact a person’s health.
While not an exact science, most people can find out if they are overweight or obese by measuring their body mass index (BMI).
For most adults, if your BMI is:
- below 18.5 – you’re in the underweight range
- 18.5 to 24.9 – you’re in the healthy weight range
- 25 to 29.9 – you’re in the overweight range
- 30 to 39.9 – you’re in the obese range
- 40 or above – you’re in the severely obese range.
As BMI measures weight, but not fat, muscular sports people, for example, could have a high BMI but not be overweight.
If classified as obese, you are at increased risk of:
- Type 2 diabetes
- Coronary heart disease
- Some types of cancer, such as breast cancer and bowel cancer
- Stroke.
Obesity is an increasingly common issue as more people work in jobs that involve sitting down for most of the day.
Furthermore, there are loads of options for eating unhealthy foods that can contribute to weight gain.
Healthy weight loss involves losing up to two pounds per week, which can be achieved by creating a calorie deficit.
To create a calorie deficit, one must burn off more calories than they consume in a day.