The geographic clustering of body size of Chinese children aged 7 years

We studied the morphological differences and similarities among Chinese Han children aged 7 years by using PCA-Q mode cluster analysis. The data were drawn from 17,119 boys and 17,084 girls who came from 28 provinces and participated in the 1985 National Survey on Students Constitution and Health. The children were divided into urban and rural subgroups in each province. First, the values of six measures of body size (stature, sitting height, body weight, chest girth, biacromial diameter and biiliocristal diameter) were normalized into principal component scores; and then clustering was performed among subgroups according to the distances determined by the component scores. The results show significant variations in children's body size exist not only between north and south China, but also between developed and under-developed districts and between urban and rural areas. The geographic and socio-economic factors causing these variations were investigated. The practical use of PCA-Q cluster analysis and its merits in studying Chinese children's growth variations are discussed.