Abstract
Principal component analysis has been applied to 64 indices calculated from the anthropometrical measurements measurements of 700 adult Japanese males aged 20 to 59. As a result five factors were extracted and interpreted. Moreover individual principal component values for each factor were calculated, and their changes following age group were examined in order to know the total variation of body form in males.
The main results are as follows :
1) The first principal component could be interpreted as a lean-obesity factor, the second as a short-long trunk length factor, the third as a factor of the form whose variations had linear relations to age, and the fourth as a chest girth factor.
2) The strict tendency to become corpulent followed age was recognized. Long trunk was most remarkably observed in 40-44 years. The form whose variations had linear relations to age wholly changed in 35-39 years.
3) Age was found to influence the body form variation of adult males by following results : (1) as the third principal component, the factor of the form whose variations had linear relations to age was extracted, and (2) the lean-obesity factor extracted as the first principal component was deeply related to age.
