Trend of average height, weight and skinfolds in the Japanese

Abstract

The incidence and prevalence of stroke is steadily declining and the age standardized mortality of ischemic heart diseases is quite low and decreasing in Japan [ 11. It is worth investigating the average height and weight of the Japanese to seek an optimal level of weight for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. The desirable body weight table by the Mutual Insurance is well known in and out of the United States. Recently a Japanese version of the desirable body weight table was presented by Dr Tsukamoto [2]. On the other hand, the Ministry of Health and Welfare is annually monitoring the height and weight along with skinfolds of family members in 300 randomly selected areas throughout the country by the Nutrition Survey [3]. Recently it has been possible to evaluate the average figures of body weight comparing them with the desirable weight figures for the Japanese of the age 30-69. This paper presents the average figures and the trend of height and weight along with skin-folds in Japanese men and women, and compares them with the desirable weight for Japanese.