Evaluation of Cast Methods for Estimating Age from the Os Pubis

Abstract

Age-related changes of the public symphysis have gained wide acceptance among physical anthropologists as one basis for estimating adult skeletal age. However, these methods have not been tested by independent observers on large samples with known ages at death that represent contemporary populations. In this study 202 female and 116 male pairs of pubes collected at autopsy were blindly evaluated for age using the McKern-Stewart or Gilbert-McKern and Suchey-Brooks methods. Performance of the methods was measured by mean absolute deviation of true age from scored interval means and frequencies of true age falling within ±1 and ±2 standard deviations from the mean. The results suggest that the Suchey-Brooks methods are superior in forensic applications and that the racially specific refinement for males should be used. Age estimates should include ±2 standard deviations, and chances of error should be considered, especially when advanced age or debilitation is suspected.

Application of the Suchey-Brooks system of pubic age estimation to recent Japanese skeletal material

“…Age differences between each of the two adjacent phases were significant (P < 0.05), except between phases III and IV in the females. As suggested by previous studies (McKern and Stewart, 1957;Katz and Suchey, 1986;Klepinger et al, 1992), variation as expressed by the standard deviation tended to increase with age. Differences between males and females were not significant in any of the phases at the 5% level, but were significant in phases III and IV at the 10% level.…”

“…Since age estimation is potentially affected by population variation, and some researchers recommend "racially specific" methods (Klepinger et al, 1992), it is of interest to known how the mean ages of the recent Japanese compare with those of the above three populations. Figure 3 shows that the Japanese male means plot closest to those of the American Black males.…”

“…In particular, the pubic symphyseal face has been widely used in estimating age (Todd, 1920;Hanihara, 1952;McKern and Stewart, 1957;Nemeskeri et al, 1960;Gilbert and McKern, 1973;Suchey, 1979;Meindl et al, 1985;Katz and Suchey, 1986;Zhang, 1986;Brooks and Suchey, 1990;Klepinger et al, 1992;Sinha and Gupta, 1995;Hoppa, 2000). Classification methods based on age-related changes of the pubic symphyseal region have been established using skeletal series comprised of individuals with known ages at death (Todd, 1920;McKern and Stewart, 1957;Nemeskeri et al, 1960;Gilbert and McKern, 1973;Katz and Suchey, 1986).…”

“…Katz and Suchey (1989) observed increased differences among populations with advanced age, reporting significant differences after phase III. Klepinger et al (1992) recommended a "racially specific" refinement of the Suchey-Brooks system. However, Katz and Suchey (1989) and Suchey and Katz (1998) cautioned that it is not possible to determine whether the observed differences relate to genetic or environmental factors such as nutrition or drug/alcohol use.…”

A comparison of three established age estimation methods on an adult Spanish sample

“…However, few studies have evaluated population differences in the accuracy of aging methods. With the exception of the Buckberry and Chamberlain method that was developed in London, these pubic symphysis and auricular surface methodologies have been developed and tested on modern skeletal samples (samples from later 19 th century to present) derived from North American populations [4,25,27,31,32]. As we have seen before, only a few studies are based on samples outside of the U.S, including India [22], Thailand [2], Great Britain [23], France [20], Italy [10] and Portugal [21].…”