Gender Differences in NATO Anthropometry and the Implication for Protective Equipment

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA491083&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

Fullenkamp, Adam M., Robinette, Kathleen M., Daanen, Hein A.


This paper compares the body proportions of men and women from the Civilian American and European Surface Anthropometry Resource (CAESAR) project, completed in 2002, and discusses proportions that have implications for protective apparel. CAESAR was an attempt to characterize the body size and shape of the adult population of NATO countries. Nearly 4,500 participants from four countries were surveyed: the United States of America, Canada, The Netherlands, and Italy. North America (i.e., the United States and Canada) was selected because it had the largest population in NATO and the most diversity. The Netherlands was selected because it had the tallest population in NATO. Italy was selected because its population was amongst the shortest. In the CAESAR project, men and women were sampled in approximately equal numbers, making it an ideal source for understanding gender differences. Stepwise Discriminant Analyses were performed using the 97 one-dim! ensional measurements collected in CAESAR. The results indicate an unprecedented separation of male and female body shapes. All three regions had at least 98.5% accuracy in predicting gender with seven or fewer measurements. Some important body proportion differences between men and women will impact the fit and effectiveness of many types of protective apparel, such as flight suits, anti-G suits, cold water immersion suits, chem-bio protective suits, etc. While women are smaller than men on average for many body measurements, women are larger than men in some important aspects. For example, women are significantly larger than men in seated hip breadth in all three populations (26 mm larger on average), while at the same time they are significantly smaller than men for shoulder breadth (54 mm smaller on average). While past anthropometric surveys to catalog human size and shape involved the collection of one-dimensional measurements, CAESAR has the advantage of providing th! ree-dimensional models of all subjects.