Hand Anthropometry; Sex Determination from Hand Dimensions in Adult Tanzanians

Abstract

Background: Personal identification through sex determination is an essential element of medico-legal examinations done by forensic scientists, clinical anatomists, clinical radiologists, anthropologists and orthopedic surgeons. The hand dimensions are sexually dimorphic and exhibit potential for sex discrimination. Aim: To determine the cut-off values of hand dimensions that could discriminate between sexes in Adult Tanzanians. Materials and Method: 384 students (192 males and 192 females) aged 18-59 years were studied. Hand length and breadth measurements were taken to estimate Hand Index, then statistically analyzed by the use of SPSS version 24 and Microsoft Excel. Results: The average hand length and breadth were found to be about 1.6 cm and 0.7 cm greater in males than in females respectively. Cut off points to differentiate between male and female for hand length, breadth and index were 18.92 cm, 9.21 cm and 48.86 respectively. Conclusion: Hand length showed the highest accuracy in the determination of sex followed by hand breadth and lastly hand index. The study clearly demonstrates that the predictive accuracy of sex estimation varies within each population, hence emphasizes the significance of generating population-specific standards to accurately estimate sex.