Digital dermatoglyphics study of cheha gurage, ethiopia:pattern type frequency and intergroup diversity

Objective of the paper is to report genetic diversity study using digital dermatoglyphics traits as genetic markers among Cheha Gurage of Ethiopia and compare the results with available data from world population studies. Digital fingerprints of 322 healthy unrelated subjects (168 Male and 154 Female) with age of 30 and above were included in the present cross-sectional study. Data drawn from 10 villages of the district was pooled into 5 cluster groups, each cluster containing 2 villages. Percent frequency distribution of digital pattern types in each hand and both hands total, bimanual differences for digital pattern type frequencies and pattern intensity index were studied. Inter-group pattern frequency differences for Gender, Religion, Clan groups, Altitude and ABO/Rh blood groups were compared. Data was processed using Microsoft excel (2007) program to sort out the data into groups and apply statistical tests. Percent pattern type frequencies, pattern intensity index and Chi-square test of independence were used to compare Inter-group differences. The results revealed that among Cheha Gurage of Ethiopia there exists significant differences in digital pattern type frequencies for Inter-clan groups comparison (2 = 18.8688, d.f = 4, p  0.001), ABO blood groups comparison (2 = 25, d.f = 12, p  0.05) and bimanual differences comparison in female gender (2 = 15.6498, d.f = 4, p  0.01).