Assessment of the relationship between digit lengths and circumferences of the waist and hip amongst Ugandans

Abstract

In human hand the second Digit (2D) and the fourth Digit (4D) present a pattern of approximate symmetry around the central axis of the third digit. Many individuals have longer 2D than 4D (2D＞1) and many have longer 4D than 2D 2D:4D＜1). The former ratio is more common in females and the later ratio is more in males. The 2D:4D ratio is fixed at an early age. There is evidence that 2D:4D is negatively associated with prenatal testosterone and positively with prenatal estrogen and that this ratio differs between male and female and different ethnic groups, with low values found in Black populations. This study sought to assess the relationship between sexually dimorphic traits established early in life and those established at puberty amongst Ugandans in Ishaka Bushenyi. One sixty nine males and one fifty four females Ugandans in Bushenyi district were used for this study. Anthropometric tape was used to measure waist and hip circumferences, a digital venier caliper was used to measure the lengths of the digit. Using Pearson's correlation, the lengths of the right index or second finger in females was found to have a positive correlation with the hip circumference while the length of the ring or fourth finger in the males was found to have a positive correlation with the waist circumference. This suggests that the lengths of the digit established early in life are positively correlated with the increased waist circumference in males and increased hip circumference in females that occur at puberty. Implying that the sexually dimorphic traits that appear in life during puberty under the influence of testosterone and estrogen is positively correlated with the sexually dimorphic traits that appear early in life due to prenatal exposure to the androgen.