Anthropometric Measurement Of The Elderly

The society is aging quickly, which leads to the increasing need ofproducts for elderly people. When designing these products, it is necessary toconsider the body characteristics, since the physiological behaviors of theelderly are very different from the adults. In 2004, the Department ofIndustrial Engineering at Tsinghua University and P&G Far East established ajoint project "The Behavior Modeling of Chinese Elderly", which aimed tobuild a computer model of the elderly and help to optimize the design ofelderly people's products. This thesis is part of the outcomes of this project,which included the measurements and analysis of body dimensions, strengthsand ranges of motion of the elderly.At first it is important to determine the measurement methods. Exceptstrengths, both body dimensions and ranges of motion have contact andnon-contact methods. Traditional gauge method is a typical contact methodwith advantage to get the results immediately after measurements;thenon-contact methods such as photographic method have advantage ofshort-time measurement process and verifiable measurement records. Thisstudy discussed the errors of the two methods. Based on the discussion, gaugemethod was chosen for the measurement of body dimensions, andphotographic method was chosen for the measurement of ranges of motion.Data were collected in Beijing area. 113 subjects (include 53 males and60 females) aged over 65 took part in the study. 47 anthropometricdimensions, 3 functional strengths and 18 ranges of motion were measured.Mean values, standard deviations, coefficients of variation, and percentilesfor each parameter were estimated.There are no significant differences between male and female indimensions around waist, hip and thigh areas, whereas in dimensions of thehead, extremities and shoulders, and all height dimensions there aresignificant differences. Compared to adults, the body height of the elderlydoesn't change much. The weight and dimensions around waist/hip areasincrease significantly;and the dimensions around shoulder area decreasesignificantly. After the age of 65, the height and weight of the male decreaseand the dimensions of shoulders, waist and hip do not change much. Alldimensions of the female come to be stable after 65. Most body dimensions ofChinese and Japanese elderly are very different. In strengths the male aresignificant larger than female. To male, except back strength, there aresignificant differences between age groups of 65～69 and 70+ in the gripstrength and leg strength. All strengths of the female between two age groupshave no significant differences. The CV values of all strengths of male andfemale are very large. The results of ranges of motion show no connectionswith gender, and after the age of 65, the values of ranges of motion come tobe stable.Based on the measurement results, sizing strategy of incontinenceproducts for elderly people was discussed.