Measurements of Hand and Foot – A Predictor of Stature in Adult Human Population of Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

Introduction: The stature of human can be easily determined by femoral length, cephalometric measurements and other long bone’s length. In many studies, use of soft tissue measurement like lower limb, upper limb and arm span also well correlated with height of the person. Aim: To investigate the association of hand and foot length with height and prediction of height using hand and foot morphometrics. Materials and Methods: 238 males and 259 females in the age group of 18-30 year were considered for measurements: height, hand morphometrics and foot morphometrics. Stadiometer was used to measure the height. All morphometric measurements analyzed by SPSS. Results: In females, stature varied from 140.500 to 180.00 cm with mean value of 157.199±6.244 cm. In males, stature varied from 159.00 to 190.00 cm with mean value of 172.742 cm ±6.110 cm. The mean height of subject is 164.642 ± 9.926 cm. The mean hand length, hand breadth, middle finger length, thumb length, foot length and foot breadth are 18.304 ± 1.458cm, 7.757 ± 0.688 cm, 7.528 ± 0.597 cm, 6.092 ± 0.543 cm, 24.728 ± 1.927 cm, and 9.402 ± 0.819 respectively. Conclusion: Foot length is better predictor of stature than hand length. Using regression formula the height of subject can be easily determined and this will be used as research tool in anthropological and medicolegal issues.

Keywords

• foot morphometrics
• hand morphometrics
• height
• thumb length