1. Objectives
The body shape was a key information for diagnosing the Sasang constitution (SC) in Sasang constitutional medicine. The aim of this study was to compare the body shapes and mainly focusing on the Korean and Chinese-Korean
2. Methods
We calculated the propensity score for each SC type in males and females separately, and compared body shape including 8 circumference and 5 width between Korean and Chinese-Korean according to the sex and SC.
3. Results
Koreans have larger trunk and hip area compared to Chinese-Koreans, while Chinese-Koreans have larger abdomen compared with Koreans. Most variables were significantly different among SC types, for both Korean and Chinese-Korean. Especially, the Taeeumin (TE) type has the largest body shape compared with the other SC types, it was similar between Korean and Chinese-Korean.
4. Conclusions
This study showed that the TE type has the largest body shape, followed by Soyangin (SY) and Soeumin (SE) in order, for both Korean and Chinese-Korean respectively. These results suggests that the body shape of Chinese-Korean is similar with Korean based on SC type.