Somatotypes among Konyak Naga Males Aged 11-20 Years: A Cross-sectional Study in the District Mon, Nagaland, India

Abstract

Introduction: Somatotyping is the best numerical method for describing the current morphological information in terms of body shape, size and structure. It is defined as a quantitative description of the present structure and composition of the body. Heath and Carter widely studied somatotype distributions of different populations, including heritibality of somatotypes, changes of somatotype in growth and aging, somatotypes in sports and physical performance and medical, behavioural, occupational and other variables associated with somatotype. It is also used to record changes in physique and to estimate gross biological differences and similarities among human beings. Somatotypes vary between population groups as well as during growth in the same population. Methods: Present investigation is based on a cross-sectional study conducted on 141 subjects during April 2023 among the Konyak Naga boys aged 11-20 years. Data was collected from different schools of Mon district, Nagaland India using standard techniques and following the defined protocols. Ten convectional anthropometric measurements were taken for analysis of anthropometric somatotyping viz. height, weight, biceps, triceps, subscapular, suprailliac, calf, humerus diameter, femur diameter and calf circumferences. Data was analysed by preparing master table followed by digitization of the data by entering the same into ‘MS Excel’ worksheet. Some basic analysis was performed in MS-Excel, whereas for further tabulation and analysis the data is transported to SPSS. Finally, the analysis of somatotyping was computed with the help of the formula and method provided by Heath and Carter. Results: The findings indicate that there are changes in the somatotyping of Konyak males with increasing age. The respondent whose age is 11-15 year they are belonging to Mesomorphic-Ectomorph type with occupying the designated region in the somatochart (2.67-3.34-3.50, 2.08-3.25-3.76, 2.14-3.39-3.96, 2.05-2.96-3.96 & 2.11-3.73-3.38). Followed by the respondent of 16 to 20 year they belong to the Ectomorphic-Mesomorph region of the somatochart (1.85-4.11-3.21, 2.12-3.41-3.03, 2.06-3.83-2.87, 2.06-3.61-3.50 & 1.42-3.53-3.16). Conclusions: It was concluded that majority (64.54% ) belong to Mesomorphic-Ectomorph. followed by Ectomorphic-Mesomorph (35.46%) and Ectomorphic-Mesomorph are lowest (35.46%) among the konyak Naga.