Reliability between measurements obtained by caliper and digital photography in facial anthropometry

To investigate the reliability between direct and indirect measurements in facial anthropometry.

The sample consisted of 60 subjects aged between 16 and 48 years. After applying the eligibility criteria, indirect objective anthropometric facial examinations (SAPO® and IMAGEJ® software) and direct frontal anthropometric examinations were performed using a digital caliper at the anthropometric points: glabella, sub nasale, gnathion, alar, exocanthus, and chilling, with the patients seated in a comfortable position and head in a natural position. Two trained and calibrated examiners performed the measurements three times to obtain the arithmetic mean. The participants were photographed to perform the indirect measurements. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics (measures of absolute and relative frequency and summary measures of central tendency and dispersion) and inferential statistics (Chi-square test, Bland-Altman, paired t-test, and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient), considering a significance of 5%.

There was intra- and inter-observer agreement, sexual dimorphism (female measurements smaller), higher values of direct anthropometry when compared with photoanthropometry, and differences between the software used and the caliper with ImageJ®.

There was a divergence between direct and indirect anthropometries, which do not represent the same values and proportions, depending on the anthropometric point used, and the professional should consider this aspect. Facial anthropometric comparisons should be carried out using the same software in order to avoid divergences in analyses.