Abstract
The objectives of the study were to determine the relationship between the facial distances and blood pressure across different age groups of young adults and middle‐aged population in males and females of northern Nigeria. Secondly, to determine the best facial predictors and discriminators of the blood pressure in the study population. Participants included 397 males and 159 females of northern of Nigeria with mean age of 25.37± 7.78 years. The facial distances were measured using direct anthropometry and blood pressure was determined using standard protocols. Pearson's correlation, step–wise multiple linear regression and receiver operating characteristic curve were employed to analyze the data. Measurements of blood pressure were in mmHg, age in years, bmi in kg/m2 and the remaining facial distances in mm. It was observed that no significant correlation between the facial distances and blood pressure (BP) in younger adult males and females except for lower facial height (LFH) and diastolic BP in males. Above the age of 30 years, significant correlation was noticed between the right ear width (EW), left EW, head length (HL) with both systolic and diastolic BP. The nasal length (NL) and nasal width (NW) correlated significantly with systolic and diastolic BP respectively in males only. For females, bizygomatic distance (BD) correlated only with systolic BP. The best predictors of systolic BP were left EW and HL in males and females respectively, while the best predictors of diastolic BP were left EW and right EW in males and females respectively. LFH was found to predict only the systolic blood pressure component in younger male adults. The best discriminating potential of facial distances with regard to abnormal blood pressure was only observed in the middle‐aged population. In both sexes right EW and left EW had more than 80% discriminating ability of abnormal BP (area under curve > 0.80). However, head width (HW) and HL had more than 80% discriminating ability of abnormal BP in males and females respectively. In conclusion, a significant correlation was observed between the facial distances and BP in middle‐ aged adult population. The facial soft tissue gave best predictors and discriminator in both sexes.
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This is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this published in The FASEB Journal.