Anthropometric Measure And Sexual Dimorphism In Young Adult Nigerians Resident In Calabar

Abstract

Anthropometric measures were used to determine sexual dimorphism in young Nigerians. This study was carried in the whole of the metropolis and was not institution-based. In this study we recruited one thousand volunteers made up of five hundred each of males and females. Their mean ages were 25.34±0.10 and 23.31±0.12 for males and females respectively. Anthropometric parameters measured included; height, weight, neck circumference (Nc), biacromial diameter (BAD) and waist circumference (Wc). From these parameters, indices were calculated using standard formulas. Males had significantly (p<.01) higher values for all the parameters measured except in Wc which was significantly lower (p<.01). Waist-Neck-Waist ratio (Wc-Nc:Wc), Waist-Biacromial diameter-Waist ratio (Wc-BAD:Wc) and Neck-Waist-Biacromial diameter-Waist ratio (Nc:Wc-BAD:Wc) showed strong positive significant (0.01) correlations in females against the moderate correlations in males. These results indicate that sexual dimorphism exists in young Nigerians with Wc, Nc and BAD indices having the most predictive power in females.