New More Generic and Inclusive Regression Formulae for the Estimation of Stature from Long Bone Lengths in Children

Abstract

Existing child stature estimation methods have a number of disadvantages. This paper addresses some of these limitations by developing regression-based stature estimation formulae that are more generic and inclusive. A sample of 142 individuals under 12 years of age from the Hamann—Todd Human Osteological Collection and the New Mexico Decedent Images Database were used to generate five least squares linear regression formulae to estimate stature from the diaphyseal length of long bones. All models showed excellent fits to the data (R2 close to or at 0.98), and internal validation confirmed the stability and accuracy of model parameters. External validation was performed using a sample of 14 individuals from the Lisbon Collection and the Victoria Institute of Forensic Medicine. Overall, the humerus provides the most accurate estimate of stature, but the femur and tibia showed the greatest coverage. These formulae can be used in a variety of contexts and are not dependent on group affiliation, including sex.

Skeletal Manifestations of Gender-Affirming Medical Interventions for Aiding in the Preliminary Identification of Trans Individuals

“…For example, Albanese [10] developed a metric approach for sex estimation that is not population-specific by rejecting a typological approach to understanding human variation that racialized already marginalized people; Albanese and colleagues [35] developed an alternative approach to stature estimation by demonstrating how group specificity based on typological concepts of human variation is highly problematic; Albanese and colleagues [30] systematically demonstrated that regardless of what terms are used (population affinity, ancestry, or race), widely available methods provide very poor results that will undermine identification while further marginalizing the living. With few exceptions (for example [29,[36][37][38], which were influenced by [10,32,35,39]), few forensic anthropologists have pursued this more robust approach that integrates ethical, methodological and theoretical issues to develop new forensic methods. Despite the clear gaps in the information currently available, the impacts of gender-affirming procedures can be detected on the skeleton, and this assessment must be included as an essential part of any thorough investigation conducted by forensic anthropologists.…”