ESTIMATING THE STATURE OF MODERN THAIS FROM THEIR LONG BONES

Abstract

The lengths of long bones of adult skeletons are commonly used to estimate stature. The regression equations used for calculating stature were established by equating the relationship between the height and the length of long bones. We measured 275 adults, ranging in age from 25 to 97 years old. The length of six long bones: humorous, radius, ulna, femur, tibia and fibula, were used in our calculations. Both the femur and tibia were measured by 2 different methods: maximum length and anatomical length. Microsoft Excel 2003 and Minitab 14, a statistics based computer software program, were used to calculate and establish the regression equations for stature estimations of three groups: male, female and unknown sex (α= 0.05). The results suggest that the length of two long bones, especially fe­mur (max) + tibia (max), provides the highest levels of accuracy for stature estimation in all three groups. For a single long bone, the femur is the most accurate for every group. Overall, the results indicate that the upper extremi­ties more accurately present the stature than the lower extremities (except femur) for males. Alternatively, the femur, tibia and fibula provide the most accurate stature estimations for females.