title: The need of specific standards for head dimensions of urban Sardinian boys.
abstract: In the 1997-1998 and 1998-1999 school years we measured head dimensions of 1600 boys from 6 to 13 years attending elementary and middle schools in towns of the Cagliari area (Sardinia, Italy). For each age, we compared the mean values for circumference, length and width of the head with Canadian standards, widely used by Sardinian pediatricians. The t-test shows that the means of the three variables are significantly lower in the Cagliari boys than in their Canadian contemporaries, with the exception of head circumference in 6 and 7 year-olds, and of head width in 10 year-olds. Therefore, it is necessary to produce specific growth charts for circumference, length and width of the head of Sardinian children rather than evaluate their growth using standards of populations with different ethnic, geographical and socio-economic backgrounds.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Sperimentale, Sezione di Scienze Antropologiche, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Monserrato, Italy. sannae@unica.it
authors.forename: Emanuele
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sanna
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Palmas
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tedesco
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Floris
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000886:Anthropometry; D002508:Cephalometry / Q000592:standards*; D002648:Child; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D012015:Reference Standards; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*