Secular change in body height and cephalic index of Croatian medical students (University of Rijeka)

Abstract

An investigation of body height and cephalic measurements was performed among five groups of first-year medical students of the University of Rijeka School of Medicine (Rijeka, Croatia). Body height and different cephalic measurements showed normal distribution, both in male and female students. Differences between measured variables were statistically analyzed by ANOVA. No significant difference with regard to year of birth was found in either males or females. The cephalic index showed no statistically significant difference between sexes or with regard to body height, while head breadth and length correlated significantly with birth year and body height, both in males and females. Head breadth decreased within the study period, while head length increased. Results were compared with those of similar studies from the mid-20th century. Student's t-test showed a significant change of cephalic indices and other head measurements, but not of body height, in males. The frequency difference between various head shapes was tested using the chi-square test. A significant increase of dolichocephalic and mesocephalic and a significant decrease of brachycephalic head shape were found in both sexes. These results suggest a continuity of the debrachycephalization process observed in our population at the past midcentury.

Cephalic Index of Ogbia Tribe of Bayesla State

“…Investigations carried out on secular change in body height and cephalic index of Croatian medical students revealed a significant increase of dolichocephalic and mesocephalic and a significant decrease of brachycephalic head shape in both sexes suggesting a continuity of the debrachycephalization process (Buretic´-Tomljanovic´ et al, 2003).…”

Secular Changes on the Stature Reconstruction from Hand and Foot Dimensions among Sikhs of Delhi

“…Bagga [34], also reported that tendency increasing height either absent or less evident in rural and tribal communities and populations from the less developed countries. It has been established in many previous researches that adult height depends on genetic and environmental factors, and on the interaction between them [35]. Silventoinen [36], provided an excellent review of the factors affecting adult height and mentioned that in modern Western societies, about 20% of variation in body height is due to environmental variation.…”

Ecological correlations between neurocranial and limb bone measurements: toward the solution of the brachycephalization problem

“…Furthermore, the principal component analysis reveals that the first principal component, highly correlated with standing and shoulder heights (element of eigenvector = 0.86 and 0.74, respectively, in females, and 0.82 and 0.72 in males), has a somewhat higher correlation with head length (0.33 in females and 0.43 in males) than with head width (−0.10 in females and −0.01 in males). Furthermore, Buretic-Tomljanovic's (2004) illustrations also suggest that head length increased in parallel with body height from 1939 to 1983 in Croatian males.…”

“…Further, Buretic-Tomljanovic's (2004) illustrations suggest that, as body height increased, cephalic index and head breadth tended to decrease from 1939 to 1983 in Croatian males. This means an inverse correlation between cranial Figure 5.…”