Occupational impact on body physique and health status: An anthropometric analysis of carpenters

Constant exposure of human body to any kind of work or profession brings remarkable changes in the body morphology and its physiology either in positive or negative outcomes. Present study has been conducted on a total of 200 adult male carpenters ranging in age from 30-40 years belonging to the different urban and rural areas of Punjab state. They were measured anthropometrically for gross body measurements, skinfolds, circumferences, segmental lengths and body breadths following the standardized techniques of Lohman et al.1988. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure was also recorded for each subject. Findings of the study indicate that carpenters show balanced type of somatotyping i.e. endo-mesoporphic type. Remarkable proportional development has been observed in the hand breadth and forearm length. Upper region of body carries more adipose tissue mass in comparison to the lower region and more development of muscle mass. Majority of the carpenters are found to be under normal grades of body mass index, waist hip ratio, blood pressure values and thus run the lower risk of developing CHDs and CVDs