Correlation of Body Height and Hand Length Among Batak Toba: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

(1) Introduction:  Indonesia, the world's largest archipelagic nation, is known for its diverse landforms and complex geological structure. It lies at the convergence of three major tectonic plates: the Indo-Australian, Eurasian, and Pacific plates. The Indo-Australian plate collides with the Eurasian plate off the coast of Sumatra, Java and Nusa Tenggara, while with the Pacific in the north of Irian and North Maluku. This geographical location can be the cause of various natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and so on. Not only natural disasters, crime cases also cause casualties. According to data reported by the Central Statistics Agency, in 2022 there will be 372,965 criminal cases, where bodies are often found in a state of decomposition, heavily damaged or in the form of body parts, sometimes leaving only a few body parts to be examined and identified. (2) Material and Method: This research is an analytical study with a cross-sectional design, with the aim of finding the relationship between the independent variable (hand length) and the dependent variable (body height) in the Batak ethnic group. (3) Result: The length of the right and left hand in men and women has a significant relationship with p-value <0.005 (p = 0.001), with levels of correlation varying from moderate to very strong r = 0.557 – 0.876. (4) Conclusion: Hand length has a relationship with body height with a moderate to very strong correlation level so that hand length can be used as a good predictor of body height.