AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF ANTHROPOMETRICAL VARIABLES BETWEEN COLLEGE-GOING MALE STUDENTS OF PUNJAB

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate skeletal and girth-related anthropometric variables among 1,200 male subjects aged 19-25 years, selected from 12 colleges across Punjab. Each college contributed 100 students, and all participants were informed about the study's objectives. The collected data were analyze using individual t-tests at a significance level of 0.05, leading to a partial rejection of the main null hypothesis. ANOVA revealed no significant differences (p > 0.05) in six skeletal anthropometric variables, standing height, body weight, biacromial diameter, leg length, humerus bicondylar diameter, and femur bicondylar diameter, across the colleges. This indicated low between-group sums of squares (SS Between = 1.92–542.3) compared to within-group variance (SS Within = 215.5–83,201.1), resulting in F-statistics below 1.24. These findings suggest a uniform body frame and proportions among the subjects, likely influenced by shared genetic, nutritional, and developmental factors within the Punjabi population. However, significant differences (p < 0.001) were observed in two girth-related variables, upper arm circumference and calf circumference, with higher F-statistics (3.69 and 4.11, respectively) and SS Between values (105.3 and 118.9), indicating notable variation. Post hoc Tukey's HSD analysis confirmed these differences, particularly highlighting that students from rural or peripheral colleges (such as Moonak and Mansa) had higher means (+2.8 cm compared with the urban-adjacent college Miranpur), suggesting a trend toward greater muscular development in rural settings. Levene's test for homogeneity of variance yielded a p-value < 0.05, indicating unequal variances. Nonetheless, the large sample size contributes to the robustness of the findings. In summary, while skeletal measurements display homogeneity among the groups, the variations in girth measurements warrant further investigation into the sub-hypothesis.