Head Circumference (HC) as a Predictor of Maximum Cranial Width (MCW), Maximum Cranial Length (MCL) and Cranial Index (CI) in Nigerian Children (Less than 3 years old)

Abstract

Head circumference is one of the commonest and very important anthropometric parameters investigated in children during physical examinations in hospitals within our locality. The aims of this study were to determine the relationship between head circumference and cranial parameters (maximum cranial width [MCW], maximum cranial length [MCL], cranial index [CI]) of study participants as well as to use head circumference values to predict cranial parameters of study participants. A total of 153 children (80 Males and 73 Females) aged between 0 and 3 years were recruited for this study with mean ages of 20.85±9.05 months in males and 19.37±9.07 in females. The head circumference (cm), maximum cranial length (cm), maximum cranial width (cm) of the study participants were measured and cranial index (%) values calculated. Pearson's product‐moment correlation coefficients between variables were computed using Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet. The mean values for head circumference were 46.31±3.48cm in males and 46.52±2.91cm in females. The mean value for maximum cranial length was 14.67±1.13cm in males and 14.80±1.27cm in females while the maximum cranial width mean values were 11.46±0.91cm and 11.89±1.16cm in males and females respectively. The mean value for the cranial index in males was 78.14±3.26% and 80.29±3.02% in females and this difference was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). A moderate positive correlation was observed between HC and MCL (r = 0.521; p < 0.0001) in males, between HC and MCL (r = 0.591; p < 0.0001) in females respectively. A weak positive correlation was found between HC and MCW (r = 0.390; p < 0.0001) in males while a moderate positive correlation existed between HC and MCW (r = 0.546; p <0.0001) in females. Results of linear regression analysis indicated that HC significantly predicted MCW and MCL in both sexes (p < 0.05) while CI was not significantly predicted by HC (b = −0.20, p = 0.0523) in males and (b = 0.06, p = 0.6019) in females respectively. However, the slope of the regression lines (b) between head circumference (cm) and all the cranial parameters was positive in females and same in males except for cranial index (b = −0.20, p = 0.0523) and this was not statistically significant (p < 0.05). From this present study, there is a moderate positive linear relationship between HC and cranial parameters (MCW; MCL) with no statistically significant relationship between HC and CI in both sexes. HC significantly predicted the values for MCW and MCL in both males and females. Routine cranial evaluation such as ours as demonstrated in this study can be of clinical importance in assessing and monitoring cranial growth in childrenSupport or Funding InformationNilThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.