Variation of Finger Print Patterns among Medical Students

Abstract

Background
A vital component of every medico-legal investigation is the identification of individuality. Finger prints, as a biometric technology is accepted globally, for identification in legal proceedings. Research on its application in this area of gender identification would improve the efficacy of legal process on identification issues. To examined variation of finger print patterns among medical students of College of Medical Sciences-Teaching Hospital, Bharatpur.
Methods
A cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the forensic medicine department at College of Medical Sciences-Teaching Hospital from April to July 2025. This, study includes, MBBS students from 1st semester to 9th semester. All the ten fingerprints of the participants were obtained on a clear A4 sized paper. The dermatoglyphic patterns were recorded on paper as an arch, whorl, loop, or composite of the right and left fingers. The data were initially entered in MS Excel and later analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. The distribution of dermatoglyphic fingertip patterns on each person's two hands were analysed using descriptive statistics and their association with gender were measured using inferential statistics. P-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results
The most common type of fingerprint pattern was found to be a loop, which was seen in more than half of the samples 1506 (63%). This was followed by whorl 646 (27%), arch 145 (6%), and the composite which was the least common, accounting for 93 (4%) samples. Statistically significant association was found between sex and fingerprint pattern of right thumb (p-value 0.021) and ring finger (p-value 0.035).
Conclusions
Loop pattern was the most common in study population and statistically significant association was found between sex and fingerprint pattern of right thumb and ring finger.