Head-and-face anthropometric survey of Chinese workers

Millions of workers in China rely on respirators and other personal protective equipment to reduce the risk of injury and occupational diseases. However, it has been >25 years since the first survey of facial dimensions for Chinese adults was published, and it has never been completely updated. Thus, an anthropometric survey of Chinese civilian workers was conducted in 2006. A total of 3000 subjects (2026 males and 974 females) between the ages of 18 and 66 years old was measured using traditional techniques. Nineteen facial dimensions, height, weight, neck circumference, waist circumference and hip circumference were measured. A stratified sampling plan of three age strata and two gender strata was implemented. Linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the possible effects of gender, age, occupation and body size on facial dimensions. The regression coefficients for gender indicated that for all anthropometric dimensions, males had significantly larger measurements than females. As body mass index increased, dimensions measured increased significantly. Construction workers and miners had significantly smaller measurements than individuals employed in healthcare or manufacturing for a majority of dimensions. Five representative indexes of facial dimension (face length, face width, nose protrusion, bigonial breadth and nasal root breadth) were selected based on correlation and cluster analysis of all dimensions. Through comparison with the facial dimensions of American subjects, this study indicated that Chinese civilian workers have shorter face length, smaller nose protrusion, larger face width and longer lip length.