Normative anthropometry and proportions of the Kenyan-African face and comparative anthropometry in relation to African Americans and North American Whites

Abstract

Background There is no normative craniofacial anthropometric data for the Kenyan-African population. The purpose of this investigation was to determine normative anthropometric craniofacial measurements and proportional relationships for Kenyans of African descent and to compare the data with African Americans (AA), North American Whites (NAW), and neoclassical canons. Methods Twenty-five direct facial anthropometric measurements, and 4 angular measurements, were taken on 72 Kenyan-African participants (age range 18–30 years) recruited at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. The data were compared with AA and NAW populations, and neoclassical canons. Descriptive statistics of the variables were computed for the study population. Results Significant differences between both Kenyan males and females were detected in forehead height (~ 5 mm greater for males, ~ 4.5 mm for females), nasal height (reduced by ~ 4 mm in males, ~ 3 mm in females), nasal width (8–9 mm greater), upper lip height (> 3 mm), and eye width (greater by ~ 3 mm) compared to NAW subjects. All vertical measurements obtained were significantly different compared with NAW. Differences were observed in comparison with AA subjects, but less marked. Mouth width was similar in all groups. Angular measurements were variable. Neoclassical canons did not apply to the Kenyan population. Conclusions Anthropometric measurements of NAW showed clear differences when compared with the Kenyan population, and variations exist with comparative AA data. The anthropometric data in terms of linear measurements, angular measurements, and proportional values described may serve as a database for facial analysis in the Kenyan-African population.

Angular Photometric Analysis of the Forehead in a Nigerian Population

“…In our study (Table 2) forehead height mean values was significantly greater in Yoruba males subjects than in females (P<0.05) except forehead height at 45° right. This concurs with the results of other researchers [19], Northwest Indians study, Du [20] study of Chinese workers, Asghari [21] study on Iranians and Virdi [22] in a Kenyan population who all reported statistically significant sexual differences in the forehead height with higher males mean values .Statistical analysis in our study (Table 2) shows that at 90° Forehead width of Yoruba males was higher than females this concurs with the finding of [23,20,21]. Results of the present study (Table 3) indicates that mean values for forehead height was higher at 90° and forehead width was also widest at 90° across cohort.…”

Features of translation of some rarely used anthropometric terms from Ukrainian into English

“…Gloria Staka and co-authors [26] та Saurab S. Virdi and co-authors [30] have used in their article the term "nasal width" (the straight distance between right and left alare) instead of "maximum nose breadth".…”

“…Nowadays, anthropometric researches have confidently taken its place in medicine. So they are useful not only for health assessment, but also are used in many fields: forensic medicine (to estimate the age of the subject) [13], forensic dentistry (it is an interdiscipline of forensic medicine and stomatology) for the identification of individual and age estimation [24], dentistry (anthropometric diagnostic methods of dentognathic anomaly, and there is potential correlation among number of teeth, chewing ability and anthropometric profile) [7,9,29], pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology [17,21,27], as well as for the diagnosis of overweight (important indicators of nutritional status in the children and adults) [11,16,20], for sports control [22] and for the standardization purpose [3,15,23,26,30]. The symptoms of many diseases are expressed in anthropometric changes [12].…”

A comparison of interpupillary distances between Turkish and Azerbaijani populations

“…The normal distribution of craniofacial anthropometric measurements in communities shows some differences. Recognition of normal facial anthropometric data is important as it is used in many applications [1]. Interpupillary distance (IPD) is an oculofacial parameter that is routinely measured in 3 ophthalmology.…”

“…In craniofacial anthropometric measurements, research shows that the largest differences exist in the orbitonasal region [1]. Even among individuals of the same ethnicity, differences in IPD depend on age and gender.…”