THE AGING PROCESS - AN ANALYSIS OF THE LATENT STRUCTURE OF BODY MORPHOLOGY (IN MALES)

The morphological characteristics (20 anthropometric variables) of a t otal of 2,351 examinees (from the age of 18 to 90) were analyzed by a model of the principal components of the factor analysis. Four factors were extracted that explain 71.4% of the total variance. The factors - >>general body voluminosity<<, >>subcutaneous fat tissue<<, >>longit udinal body dimensionality<< and >>upper body voluminosity<< - were an alyzed within the context of their appearance in different age-determi ned cohorts. The differences between cohorts ()groups per ten years of age) were studied by the canonical discriminant analysis. The first t wo discriminant functions (describing mostly the variability of cohort s - 96.11%) indicate a constant decrease of body and sitting height, a nd an increase of upper body voluminosity till the fourth age cohort, which is the most crucial one in the change of latent morphological st ructure. Results of the correct classification of cohort members show that only 48.45% of probands were correctly placed (the best classific ation determined was in the age between 46 and 55 years) indicating th at in males, at least three different groups exist according to the sp ecificity of morphological aging in human organisms.