Different Growth Status of Youths Aged 18 from 27 Chinese Minority Nations

This study focused on studying the morphological similarities of 27 Chinese minority nations' youths aged 18 by using PCA-Q mode cluster analysis. Six measurements of body size, two indices of body shape and four indices of growth tempo (which were estimated from cross-sectional data of 69, 389 subjects aged 7 through 18 by using proportional interpolation method) were used as variables. The values of these variables were normalized into principal component scores, and clustering was done among 27 nations according to the distances determined by their component scores (centroid method). Both for boys and girls, there were seven clusters fused at about 0.2 similarity level. The clusters thus formed not only described the significant differences among themselves but also showed closed associations between the geographic, ecologic and socio-economic differences and youth's growth status. The consistency of clustering tendency between children aged 7 (JI and OHSAWA, 1991) and youths aged 18 of these minority nations was also verified.