The apparel industry has recently been recognizing the important target market of middle-aged women. The aim of this study was to examine the anthropometric characteristics of US women of 46 to 65 years of age and identify distinctive body shape characteristics of US middle-aged women. A total of 1915 middle-aged women whose ages ranged from 46 to 65 were selected from the SizeUSA database. The age range was divided into two groups: 46-55 and 56-65. Twenty-four body measurements important for apparel development were chosen. Four factors—Girth Factor, Height Factor, Hip Drop Factor, and Bust Drop Factor—accounted for the US middle-aged women’s body measurements. The body shapes were classified into four body shapes, which were Y-Shape in the overweight range, S-Shape in the overweight range, H-Shape in the overweight range, and the A-Shape in obese range. H-Shape, which was the least-defined waist in relation to the bust and hips with a short height, existed more in older middle-aged women than in younger middle-aged women. Y-Shape, S-Shape, and A-Shape existed more in the group of younger middle-aged women than in the group of older middle-aged women. In addition, compared with the younger middle-aged women, older middle-aged women had narrower shoulders, a larger waist, thinner legs, and a longer distance between side neck to bust point. The findings from the current study may be applied in the apparel industry for developing clothing sizing systems for US middle-aged women.

This study was conducted to investigate the anthropometric data, nutrient intakes and serum profiles in premenopausal and postmenopausal women living in Gyeonggi-do Province, Republic of Korea. The subjects were 49 premenopausal women and 63 postmenopausal women who are not taking any hormone or cardiovascular drugs. Anthropometric measurements were taken by a trained practitioner and the data for dietary intakes were obtained by a 24-hour recall method. Serum samples were collected and analyzed for the total cholesterol, triglyceride (TG) and lipoprotein fractions. The mean age of the premenopausal women was 45.17±3.28 years and that of the postmenopausal women was 62.52±4.14 years. The height and weight were 157.86±4.35 ㎝, 58.75±6.01 ㎏ in premenopausal women and 156.42±3.62 ㎝, 57.63±5.38 ㎏ in postmenopausal women, respectively. WHR (waist hip ratio) in postmenopausal women was significantly higher than that of premenopausal women (p<0.05). There were no differences between the pre-and postmenopausal women in the intakes of energy, protein, fat, Ca, Fe, vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, niacin, vitamin C and vitamin E. However carbohydrate and Na intakes in postmenopausal women were significantly higher than those of premenopausal women. In postmenopausal women, Ca intake was below and Na intake was extremely high considering KDRIs (Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans). Serum triglyceride in postmenopausal women was positively correlated with age, BMI (body mass index) and WHR. Serum total cholesterol and triglyceride in postmenopausal women showed significantly negative correlations with fiber intake. These results suggest that it is necessary to help postmenopausal women maintain a healthy body weight. Postmenopausal women needs to increase Ca (calcium) intakes and diet quality by decreasing the intakes of Na (sodium). In addition, an adequate intakes of fiber is recommended for postmenopausal women to prevent cardiovascular disease.

The purpose of this paper it to investigate the differences in prevalence of obesity and body fat distribution on the variances of age. Height, weight, skinfold thickness and girth circumference on about 422 women residing in Cheju, Korea were surveyed. The results of analysis of the survey are as follows : 1) All the antropometric measurements except height were shown to increase with age. Weight is at its highest level between the age of 50-59. The measurement of skinfold thickness and girth circumference between the ages of 20-39 of the female subjects are significantly higher than the above 40's. However, there is no significant difference among the middle aged women. 2) Physical indices tend to increase according to age. Both BMI and RBW of women in their 50's are at their highest values, however, the index values of the women in their 60's decreased slightly (p<0.05). On the contrary, there is no significant difference in the percentage of body fat and total body fat content among the middle aged women surveyed. 3) According to this survey, 15.6% of the 422 subjects are assessed as being obese ; more specifically 4.4% of women in their 20's, 12.6% in 30's, 25.6% in 40's, 22.5% in 50's and 17.3% in 60's. 4) 39.4% among obese women proved to be upper body type women. Because the frequency of upper body type women became higher as the obese women aged, there is possibility that the pattern of fat distribution can change. 5) Weight is the most highly correlated with BMI(r=0.91), whereas weight as correlated with RBW, percentage of BF and WHR are 0.8, 0.66 and 0.44 respectfully. The conclusion of this survey is that it is better to estimate the value of total body fat and percentage of body fat than the value of BMI in the analysis of prevalence of obesity and its related factors of middle aged women.