Adult Age-at-Death Estimation in Unknown Decedents

Effects of osteoarthritis on age‐at‐death estimates from the human pelvis

“…The continued use of such markers supports the necessity of evaluating joint surfaces in relation to OA (unaffected by trauma), to understand bone health and how OA directly affects the rate of skeletal aging. In this study, transition analysis demonstrated differential rates between methods of age progression of skeletal traits accelerated by OA, highlighting the importance of determining a final age estimate from varied skeletal locations on the body (Hartnett‐McCann, Fulginiti, & Seidel, ). Other areas not biomechanically loaded in the same way as the pelvis (e.g., the upper limb), have shown promise in effectively estimating age‐at‐death from skeletal arthritic degeneration (Falys and Prangle, ), which suggests that the biological processes that cause OA share a common final pathway with other age‐associated diseases, rather than OA occurring as a time‐dependent disorder distinct from normal aging with separate causative mechanisms at work.…”