Comparison of Body Measurements between Korean and the U.S.Women Aged Over 55

Abstract

Anthropometric studies and multicultural research on body changes are fundamental and importantdata for domestic apparel industry and for globalization of womens clothing marketing. The objective ofthis study is to compare the general body measurements and shoulder angles of Korean and U. S. elderlywomen to supply basic data for the apparel design. The anthropometric data was collected includingboth direct and indirect measurements of 272 women over the age of 55 in Korean (subject = 123) andthe U.S (subject = 149). The statistical methods used for the analysis of measurement data are the factorand cluster analysis respectively. The results of the factor analysis indicated that 5 factors can beextracted in Korean and 4 factors can be extracted in the U. S. from 15 body measurements to explainthe variance. The results of cluster analysis by shoulder slope angle and forward displacement of theshoulder of Korean and the U. S. women classified them in three groups, cluster 1, cluster 2 and cluster 3respectively.