Anthropometry of Saudi Arabian Female College Students

Abstract

In Saudi Arabia, many universities have separate women’s campuses. Lab equipment, tools, offices supplies, classroom furniture and machines are mainly used and run by female students. Most of these articles are imported from Europe, United States and China. This work is part of a project to investigate the mismatch between the product design and the Saudi female body dimensions and strength. Availability of anthropometric data for such population will assist in designing safe and highly usable products. This paper presents the results of anthropometric data collected for Saudi female population. The data were collected for college students from different female’s campuses in Riyadh the capital city of the kingdom. A set of 32 body measurements and the weight are collected for 150 students aged 18-25. To highlight the product design mismatch, the data were compared to Western and Asian population. It is found that many of Saudi females’ body dimensions are different than females’ body dimension of these countries. The data are presented in anthropometric tables that can be utilized by designers and government officials for setting standards on foreign imported articles. Moreover, it is believed that this is the first anthropometric study for adult Saudi females and the results can be used as a reference for any future anthropometric study in the country.