Stature estimation formulae for Mexican contemporary population: A sample based study of long bones

Abstract

Stature estimation is an important step to create a biological profile for human identification of unknown individuals in forensic anthropological practice, and it is well known that the long bone length is highly correlated with this feature. The purpose of the present study is to develop formulae for height estimation, based on simple linear regression model for humerus, femur and tibia in Mexican contemporary population.Stature was taken in 56 males and 30 female corpses as well as maximum length of three long bones of the limbs after autopsy following the Menéndez et al. (2014) criteria, at the Facultad de Medicina (School of Medicine) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.Based on this data, equations for each sex and for the three long bones were developed, obtaining a highly significant (p < .001) linear regression models with correlation coefficients of r = 0.820 for female femur and r = 0.855 for male tibia. In this manner, the new formulae provide better and reliable results of stature estimation for the contemporary population of Mexico.