Cephalic Index of Adult Igbo’s in Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Cephalic index is of great importance to anatomists, anthropologists and even to forensic scientists, in the determination of head shapes and for medicolegal cases. Cranial and post cranial measurements have typically been used to describe individuals and to compare groups. This study aims at obtaining the Cranial indices of adults Igbos in Imo state, which will help build the forensic database and in identification of age, gender, racial differences in recent and ancient humans, and in the diagnoses of certain developmental disorders of the skull, such as Craniosynostosis, Hydrocephalus, and Postural deformation. Also to correlate the results of males with that of females. One thousand, One hundred and fifty eight (1158) subjects comprising of five hundred and seventy nine (579) males and females respectively, ages 18-52 years. The measurements were done manually with the use of transparent graded ruler, measuring tapes, gliding and sliding calipers or flexible tapes. The following parameters were measured; cranial length, cranial breadth, since Cephalic Index=Cranial breadth/cranial length x 100. The mean cranial length and breadth were 172±92.89 and 160.46±27.65 respectively. The result for males Cranial Length (CL), Cranial Breadth (CB), were respectively 173.93±18.75, 161.05±17.21. The result for females Cranial Length (CL), Cranial Breadth (CB), were respectively; 171.76±30.06, 159.88±35.11. These results were used to calculate the various Cephalic Index; mean Cephalic Index (CI) was 97.26±21.55. The males Cephalic Index (CI) was100.23±26.23, and female Cephalic Index (CI) was 94.29±14.94, Analysis of the results was done using independent t-test and Pearson bivariate correlation. These tests were carried out using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 25). Microsoft office excel was also used during data processing. Analysis showed that there was a significant difference in the mean values of females and males. The result from this study shows that Adults in Imo state are Brachycephalic. This study is a great contribution to the forensic, anthropology, anatomical and medical database.