© Kamla-Raj 2014 Anthropologist, 18(2): 601-608 (2014) Comparison of Static Anthropometric Characteristics among Workers of Three Iranian Ethnic Groups F. Sadeghi 1 , A. R. Bahrami 2* and A. Joneidi Jafari 3 1 Occupational & Environmental Health Center, Ministry of Health, Treatment & Medical Education, Tehran, Iran 2 Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hanadan, Iran 3 Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran E-mail: 1 <sadeghi@health.gov.ir>, 2 <bahrami@umsha.ac.ir>, 3 <a.jonidi@modares.ac.ir> KEYWORDS Anthropometry. Iranian Workers. Ergonomics. Ethnicity Body Dimensions ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to compare anthropometric characteristics of Iranian workers with three different ethnicities including Fars, Azeri and Arab. A total number of 3436 subjects aged ranging 20 to 60 years old were randomly selected as the sample. Overall, thirty-six body dimensions besides body weight were measured. The statistical indexes consisting of mean, standard deviation, 5th and 95th percentile values were tabulated for the various body dimensions. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc tests were performed to determine the significant differences among the mean value of body dimensions of study ethnics. The results indicated that there are significant differences in most of the dimensions among the three ethnic groups for both males and females (P-value<0.05). The post-hoc tests showed that Fars males have larger body size compared to the Arab and Azeri. In addition, Azeri females tends to have larger body. Azeri male and Fars female have the smallest body size compared to other ethnics. In conclusion, there is a significant morphological difference among the three Iranian ethnic groups with the same nation. Furthermore, there are various body dimension differences among different nations. Thus, considering the ethnicity factor while designing, for the Iranian population, is highly recommended. Address for correspondence: Dr. Abdul Rahman Bahrami, Department of Occupational Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran E-mail: bahrami@umsha.ac.ir, a167r@yahoo.com INTRODUCTION Engineering anthropometry is one of the er- gonomics branch which provides body dimen- sions for the purpose of a fit product for users (Chandra et al. 2011, Gupta et al. 2014). Anthro- pometric dimensions are mostly depended on gender, race, nation and age. The anthropomet- ric differences among races are greater than na- tions (Lin et al. 2004). Different races of the same nation may also have varied body sizes and bodi- ly proportions due to differences in genetic. Eth- nic diversity is always a significant factor that may affect the anthropometric data and the scopes of its applications (Roebuck et al. 1975). Pheasant and Haslegrave (2005) suggested that the variations in body dimensions of different groups can be observed in terms of overall body size. The mean anthropometric dimensions, for example stature and sitting height, are the most typical distinctions among ethnic groups. For efficient design of machinery and equip- ment, it is necessary to determine people anthro- pometric characteristics and consider principles of ergonomics, which provide an orientation to- wards fulfillment of physiological and psycho- logical needs of operators (Das and Grady 1983; Das and Sengupta 1996). In this regard, the ba- sic information required is the anthropometric body dimensions of the users. Iran is an ethnically diverse country. The main ethno-linguistic minority groups in Iran are Fars, Azeri, Kurds, and Arabs etc. The literature relat- ing to anthropometric data of Iranian workers is limited. The first anthropometric study of Irani- an was done among male soldiers for military design and sizing the bodies in 1967 (Mouodi 1996). However, no information has been issued about the results. Kanaani et al. (2010) deter- mined 8 foot dimensions for design of shoes and other foot equipments. Davodiyantalab et al. (2013) reported 18 body dimensions of 400 Irani-