Analysis of Human Body Shape Viewed From the Biological and Chronological Time Scales

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The timings of the adolescent growth spurts were analyzed on the chronological and the biological (TW2 RUS skeletal maturity) time scales to clarify the change to body proportion with growth. The items analyzed were weight, height, sitting height, leg length, arm length, shoulder width and hip width. The subjects consisted of 9,209 schoolchildren from Ogi Growth Study between 1979 and 1988. Median single-year velocities were smoothed by a cubic spline function with AIC estimation. The multivariate allometry also applied to the date. The peak ages and the RUS scores at the adolescent growth spurt for the measurements were estimated from the growth velocity curves.The peak for boys appeared between the ages of 12.7 and 13.3 years in sequent order as hip width < leg length < arm length < height < sitting height shoulder width < weight. The peak for girls appeared between the ages of 9.9 and 11.4 years in sequent order as leg length < arm length < shoulder width < height < sitting height < hip width < weight. This suggested the caudocephalic growth gradient during boys' shape formation.When the timings for the peak at adolescent growth spurt were analyzed on a biological time scale, no discrepancies between the measurements were found. The peaks were centered around the TW2 RUS scores between 550 and 560 points for boys, between 670 and 680 points for girls. The shape changes of the body occurred almost of simultaneously.The Multivariate allometric analysis revealed the allometric but not isometric relation to the growth of total body. In boys leg and arm lengths and shoulder width showed positive allometry and hip width and sitting height showed negative allometry. In girls the hip width and arm length showed positive allometry ; leg length did isometry ; and shoulder width and sitting height did negative allometry with increase of total body size.