若年女子の体格および身体形態特性に関する統計学的研究 ： 多変量解析を用いた体型表現因子の抽出と体格の最近の推移

Abstract

To investigate characteristics of body structure and their time trend among young women, we obtained 63 anthropometric measurements from women aged 18 or 19. All the 585 subjects were new students in a women's university in Kobe, Japan in 1982, 1984, 1987 and 1992. Sixty-three measurements involved items regarding height, length, girth, width, depth and others of diverse parts of the body. The results obtained were summarized as follows : (1) out of 63 items, 37 accepted the null hypothesis that the distribution was a normal one. Most of the items which rejected the hypothesis were those pertaining to width, girth or depth. (2) A total of 51 items increased in an average of the measurement during the 10-year study period. The largest increase appeared in acromion height, and its value was 2.3 cm. Twenty-two items including stature and body weight showed an increment over 1 in the absolute values. (3) Seven factors explaining body structure were extracted through factor analysis on the data of 63 measurements for the 585 subjects. Their cumulative contribution rate reached 88%. Taking the items having factor loadings higher than 0.4 in respective factors into consideration, we could regard the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and the 7th factors as size factor, shape factor, shape of the back, shape of the chest, size of shoulders, shape of the neck and slope of shoulders, respectively. (4) Cluster analysis using the factor scores revealed that the proportion of women having larger size and shape factors increased in these 10 years, and women with enlarged shape of the chests, more slender necks and flat shoulders also increased. The results stated above clarified that body stucture of young women aged 18 or 19 has been increasing in the period of 10 years after 1982.