Multiple regression analysis of anthropometric measurements influencing the cephalic index of male Japanese university students

<p><b>INTRODUCTION</b>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.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>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.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>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.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The results suggest that most of the variables considered in this study appear to influence the CI of adult male Japanese students.</p>

Prevalence of nontraumatic foot pain among urban young working women and its contributing factors

<p><b>INTRODUCTION</b>Foot pain is a common problem, especially in women, and studies have shown that it is related to footwear. This study was conducted to establish the prevalence of nontraumatic foot pain and its contributing factors in young working Malaysian women in an urban setting.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The survey was conducted on a group of working women (age range 21-40 years) selected using convenience sampling. Data on foot problems was collected through an investigator-directed questionnaire and during clinical inspection of the foot.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 400 women, with a mean age of 29.4 years, were recruited. Half (n = 200) of the women had experienced recurrent nontraumatic foot pain in the past one year. Subjective assessments of foot pain using the Numeric Intensity Scale gave an average score of 4.89 ± 1.78 (range 2-10), with most episodes occurring at the heel. There was no statistically significant association between foot pain and age, ethnicity or body mass index. However, there was a higher incidence of foot pain in women wearing high-heeled footwear than those wearing non-high-heeled footwear (p = 0.027, odds ratio 1.591).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Nontraumatic foot pain is common among young working women in our society. More than half (68.4%) of the women with foot pain in our study attributed the pain to footwear. Wearing high-heeled shoes to work was a significant contributing factor. Increased public awareness on the importance of proper footwear may help to reduce the prevalence of nontraumatic foot pain in working women.</p>