Insights into altitude-driven differences in the facial dimensions of North Indian population – Forensic and anthropological aspects

The human face is considered a key body part for identification, expression, and appearance among others. The facial features reflect the unique morphology of an individual. There are several factors responsible for contributing to facial appearance such as climatic, geographical, genetic, ethnicity, ancestry, age, sex, socioeconomic factors, etc. To improve comparability, anthropometric measures might be a helpful tool for objectively analysing each person’s unique facial anatomy. The present study is aimed to bring out the differences existing in the facial measurements of two North Indian populations living at different altitude conditions. Nineteen facial anthropometric measurements were taken from 493 participants living at higher (n = 257) and lower Himalayan (n = 236) regions ranging in age from 18 to 35 years. The study revealed the existence of sexual dimorphism (p < 0.05) in all the facial measurements except the height of the forehead, and interocular breadth in higher altitude populations while the height of the forehead in populations living at lower altitudes varied. The differences were also evaluated in both the populations, and the study reported statistically significant (p < 0.05) differences in maximum head breadth, minimum frontal breadth, physiognomic facial height, bizygomatic breadth, mouth breadth, physiognomic upper facial height and height of forehead. The facial anthropometric analysis also holds great importance in aesthetical and reconstructive facial surgeries, biometric and forensic applications as well as facial reconstruction purposes for the populations in north India.