Counting the Dead: The Epidemiology of Skeletal Populations.

Caries prevalence in skeletal series: is it possible to compare?

“…Being an intrinsic characteristic of the archaeological funerary sample, this non random feature could not be efficiently avoided and as a direct result, the archaeological skeletal sample is very distinctive from the regular population samples used in epidemiological research. The archaeological skeletal sample does not have all the required characteristics needed to make prevalence comparisons following the epidemiological and statistical parameters (Waldron 1994).…”

Vida y muerte en el Perú colonial: inicios de la bioarqueología en Lambayeque histórico (1536-1750 d.C.)

“…Las muestras con mayor proporción de personas de edad avanzada tienen una mayor probabilidad de haber acumulado más patología, debido a que han vivido más tiempo y viceversa. En consecuencia, HEL, la hiperostosis porótica y la periostitis, fueron recodificadas como presente o ausente, y la prevalencia específica de la clase de edad se calculó utilizando un ratio de probabilidades (Waldron 1994) en el software SAS 9.1. Cuando se suman y se dividen por el tamaño de la muestra total, un ratio de probabilidades común (ÔR) genera una relación entre la edad y la prevalencia específica proporcional en dos poblaciones con un solo número.…”

The Bioarchaeological Investigation of Childhood and Social Age: Problems and Prospects

“…Weiss (1973) has estimated expected subadult mortality rates in prehistory and in the pre-antibiotic era of between 30-70%, based on a number of ethnographic sources. Waldron (1994) has estimated that in pre-industrial times subadult deaths made up around 30% of the skeletal population, based on data from "developing" countries. Lewis (2007, p. 22) has cautioned that there are problems with using these mortality data as a standard, because the health and economic conditions of these populations are influenced by industrialized countries.…”