Impact of migration, environment and socioeconomic conditions on the physique of Sikhs

Abstract

This study is based on a cross-sectional sample of 459 Sikh adults, male and female, from three castes representing three levels of socioeconomic affluence. The sedentes group stayed all their lives in the native state of Punjab, India; the migrant group completed their active physical growth in the Punjab and left for the UK at around 20 years of age. The pattern of stature, weight, BMI and skinfolds in both groups reflects their level of socioeconomic affluence in their native Punjab. In the migrants, the caste differences in the mass measures largely disappear, but the differences in the skeletal dimensions remain. Both male and female migrants are heavier than their sedente counterparts and the male migrants have substantially higher amounts of subcutaneous fat. The change in weight, BMI and skinfolds in the migrants is inversely proportional to the original values of these variables in the native settings. Male sedentes and migrants are not statistically significantly different in stature, but the female migrants are taller than their sedente peers in all three castes. In a multivariate analysis, caste remains the most significant factor in the skeletal variables; in the mass characters, both caste and migration are statistically significant factors; age explains very little of the variation.

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