The development of malaysian body somatotype model using comprehensive multivariate techniques

Abstract

This study was designed to develop Malaysian body somatotype model among U21 athletes using multivariate analysis. A total of 85 athletes (aged 20.5 ± 5.5 year) were participated in the assessment of anthropometrics measurements. They were from three types of sports which are weightlifter, futsal and Sepak Takraw. These selected sports were represented three categories of body somatotypes namely endomorph, mesomorph and ectomorph respectively. Discriminant Analysis (DA) was used to determine the model and validate the accuracy of these groups classification. As the result, DA obtained 98.8% variability with two factors. First factor (F1) revealed 85.9% discrimination while second factor (F2) revealed 12.9% discrimination as it is related to anthropometrics and the variation of three groups significantly. A body somatotype model was generated using the standardized coefficient of F1. Standard DA showed three discriminated variables (height, sitting height and weight) with 67.06% percentage of correctness. While forward and backward stepwise mode assigned two discriminated variables (weight and height) with 69.41% percentage of correctness. They were established as essential indicators for differentiating body physical category.