CORRELATION OF BODY HEIGHT BY FOOT LENGTH AND KNEE HEIGHT MEASUREMENTS IN POPULATION OF NORTH INDIA

Background: The body height measurement plays an important role in personal and medico legal identification and has become invaluable aid to scientific research in Anatomy, especially anthropological anthropometry. This study is conducted to find the correlation between body height and foot length & knee height measurements in both the sexes and to determine accurate and best predictor of height from above two parameters using Correlation Coefficient. Methods: Asymptomatic, healthy 1000 subjects (500 males and 500 females), residents of Teerthanker Mahaveer University of cosmopolitan origin age over 18 years old were studied. Their body height, Foot lengths and knee height were measured and all the readings were subjected to Statistical Analysis using mean standard deviation, Pearson’s correlation coefficients and linear regression analyses. Result: In present study, correlation coefficients (r) values between body height, foot lengths and knee height were found to be statistically significant and positive in both males, females and in combined data, with highest ‘r’ value of knee height followed by foot lengths. Regression equations for estimating body height were developed for each of these parameters by Linear Regression. Conclusion: The study suggests the Knee height to be the best body height indicator developed for estimation of body height according to gender including age as a predictor variable in order to reduce the inherent problem of sample specificity and enhance accuracy confidence in the estimation.