CORRELATION OF STATURE IN RELATION TO HEAD LENGTH IN MEDICAL STUDENTS IN BIKANER DISTRICT RAJASTHAN.
Anthropometric measurements vary in different races, sex and age groups. Stature is one of the various parameters of identification. Estimation of stature from measurement of various body parts is of immense important to the forensic experts. It is known that there a close relationship exists between the height of an individual and various parts of the body like head, trunk, upper and lower extremities. The aim of this study is to estimate the relationship between the stature and head length. This study was conducted on 200 (100 males, 100 females) medical students of age groups 18-25 years at SPMC Medical College, Bikaner (Rajasthan). Height and head length were measured and Pearson correlation was used to see correlation. Head length and height are positively correlated among boys and girls and it is statistically highly significant. When both boys and girls were combined it also showed positive correlation which is statistically highly significant. This study shows that there is a strong association between height and head length. Simple regression equations generated from head length can be a supplementary approach for stature estimation when extremities are not available and will be useful for anatomists, archaeologists, anthropologists and forensic scientists. Keywords: Correlation coefficient, Head length, Regression equation, Stadiometer, Spreading caliper, Stature.