Background: This study was carried out on male and female Nigerians whose age ranged from 3 to 18 years in order to provide a database of canthal measurements for a predominantly black population and compare them with Caucasians.
Study design: All the healthy pupils and students were randomly selected. The ages of the children, adolescents and young adults were approximated to their nearest birthdays. Two different researchers measured each parameter and the mean values were recorded.
Setting: Nursery, primary, secondary schools and the University of Benin, in Benin City, Nigeria.
Results: Four hundred and sixty eight males (53.4%) and 408 (46.6%) females making up a total of 876 subjects were studied. The mean values for medial canthal distance for male Nigerians are slightly higher than those established for male Caucasians and these differences are significant (p>0.05). There was no significant difference in the lateral canthal distance between the two groups (p<0.05). Nigerian and Caucasian females have significant difference (p>0.05) in mean values for medial canthal distances but not in lateral canthal distance (p<0.05). The difference in these distances between Nigerian males and females are not significant. Weight and lateral canthal distance showed a covariance of 6.980 while age and lateral canthal distance, age and medial canthal distance showed a covariance of 2.970 and 1.140 respectively. There was no correlation between age, height, weight and the distances measured.
Conclusion: Medial canthal distances between male and female Nigerians compared to males and female Caucasians show significant variations but not in the lateral canthal distances.