Regional and Gender Differences in the Cephalic Index among South Indian and North-East Indian Population

Abstract

Background: Cephalic index has a wide range of scope in personal identification, plastic surgery, and orthodontics and in identifying the differences in race and ethnicity. The present research is an attempt to identify the difference in the cephalic index in association with region and gender in a sample of total 300 participants (South Indians, 150 and North East Indians, 150), with an equal number of males and females. Standardized spreading caliper was used to measure the head breadth and head length of each participant. Measurement of cephalic index was obtained using the equation; maximum cranial breadth/maximum cranial length multiplied by 100. Results:The baseline of the cephalic index of the participants from South India were approximated as 76.47, with a range of 71.27 to 81.67. The baseline of the participants from North East India can be approximated as 84.16, with a range of 80.34 to 87.98. The baseline indicated that participants from South India are more mesocephalic, and from North East India are more brachycephalic. Mann-Whitney U test indicated that there is a significant regional difference in the cephalic index. There is no significant gender difference. Conclusion:Generalization regarding the regional difference in cephalic index can be made by comparing the present results with the previous findings. The results contribute to forensic, anthropological, and clinical literature.