Multiple regression analysis of anthropometric measurements influencing the cephalic index of male Japanese university students.
BACKGROUND
Cephalic index (CI), the ratio of head breadth to head length, is widely used to categorise human populations. The aim of this study was to access the impact of anthropometric measurements on the CI of male Japanese university students.


METHODS
This study included 1,215 male university students from Tokyo and Kyoto, selected using convenient sampling. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the effect of anthropometric measurements on CI.


RESULTS
The variance inflation factor (VIF) showed no evidence of a multicollinearity problem among independent variables. The coefficients of the regression line demonstrated a significant positive relationship between CI and minimum frontal breadth (p < 0.01), bizygomatic breadth (p < 0.01) and head height (p < 0.05), and a negative relationship between CI and morphological facial height (p < 0.01) and head circumference (p < 0.01). Moreover, the coefficient and odds ratio of logistic regression analysis showed a greater likelihood for minimum frontal breadth (p < 0.01) and bizygomatic breadth (p < 0.01) to predict round-headedness, and morphological facial height (p < 0.05) and head circumference (p < 0.01) to predict long-headedness. Stepwise regression analysis revealed bizygomatic breadth, head circumference, minimum frontal breadth, head height and morphological facial height to be the best predictor craniofacial measurements with respect to CI.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that most of the variables considered in this study appear to influence the CI of adult male Japanese students.
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, National Orthopaedic Centre of Excellence for Research and Learning, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Lembah Pantai 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. sawaik@hotmail.com.
Md Golam
MG
Hossain
Aik
A
Saw
Rashidul
R
Alam
Fumio
F
Ohtsuki
Tunku
T
Kamarul
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001827:Body Height; D002508:Cephalometry / Q000379:methods*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006257:Head / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult