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

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

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