The Study on the Somatotype and Spinal Deformity among Middle and High School Girls

중·고 여학생의 체형분류 및 척추변형에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study was to classify female students' somatotypes, to investigate the relationship between five somatotypes obtained from anthropometric measurements and to examine the relationship between the spinal deformity and somatotypes. The subjects for anthropometric measurements were 844 female middle and high school students. The data were analyzed by cluster analysis, correspondence analysis, Duncan test, and T-test. The results were as follows. Cluster analysis on the factors extracted from directly measured items classified subjects into five types (middle height and a little slim type (39.6%), low height and a little slim type (13.1%), middle height and a little fat type (18.0%), tall and very fat type (7.7%), and very tall and standard type (21.6%). In examining the relationship between the normal people and those of the spinal deformity, the normal showed higher mean value in almost all the items of the girth, the depth, and the length. High school students had more spinal deformity in number than middle school students. The degree of deformity was higher in the right spinal deformity than in the left spinal deformity as the age increased. In terms of the distribution of the spinal deformity classified by the somatotype, Type 1 (middle height and a little slim type) and Type 5 (very tall and standard type) appeared the highest.