Correlation of Japanese Women's Body Proportions with Age and Height

Abstract

The differences in the female body proportions of the older and younger generations have been pointed out previously. However, because the younger women are now much taller than the older women, the proportion differences should be explained by (1) the differences between women of the same height of different ages and (2) the differences between women of the same age of different heights. Therefore, the author calculated the proportions of each body part to height, measured from the front view of a subject, and studied the relationship between age groups and proportions both regardless of height (as is often the case) and for similar height groups. The author found that many proportions had close relationship with height. Also, many significant differences were found when the author compared proportions between age groups, but fewer distinct differences were found between age groups with similar height. This finding clarifies that many proportions do not differ on the basis of age but on the basis of height.
Nevertheless, the comparison of similar height groups showed that the average ratio of crotch-height to overall height and that of front-waist-height to overall height of the women in their 20's are higher than those of women in their 30's. However, for the groups whose average heights are over 160 cm, the ratio of crotch-height to overall height did not differ significantly; therefore, the general tendency towards longer legs seems to be slowing down amongst taller subjects.
Furthermore, the ratio of head and face sizes to overall height increased in general with older subjects. The ratio of total-head-height to height dropped sharply (not gradually) for 50's women of 145.150 cm tall group and for 60's women of 155.160 cm tall group. However, subjects of a variety of ages, but with similar heights had almost the same ratio of bitragion-breadth to height. However, the ratio of bigonial-breadth to height dropped sharply for 50's women of 145.150 cm, 150.155 cm and 155.160 cm tall groups.