Cardoso Hugo F V
Departamento de Antropologia, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra 3000-056, Portugal.
J Forensic Sci. 2009 Jan;54(1):13-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00916.x. Epub 2008 Nov 21.
In this study, the accuracy of three methods for stature estimation of children from long bone lengths was investigated. The sample utilized consists of nine identified immature skeletons (seven males and two females) of known cadaver length, aged between 1 and 14 years old. Results show that stature (cadaver length) is consistently underestimated by all three methods (from a minimum of 2.9 cm to a maximum of 19.3 cm). The femur/stature ratio provided the least accurate estimates of stature, and predictions were not significantly improved by the other two methods. Differences between true and estimated stature were also greatest when using the length of lower limb bones. Given that the study sample children grew in less than optimal environmental conditions, compared with the children that contributed to the development of the methods, they are stunted and have proportionally shorter legs. This suggests that stature estimation methods are not universally applicable and that environmental differences within a population (e.g., socioeconomic status differences) or differing levels of modernization and social and economic development between nations are an important source of variation in stature and body proportions of children. The fallibility of stature estimation methods, when they do not consider such variation, can be somewhat minimized if stature is estimated from the length of upper limb bones.
在本研究中，对根据长骨长度估算儿童身高的三种方法的准确性进行了调查。所使用的样本包括九具已确认身份的未成年骨骼（七名男性和两名女性），已知尸体长度，年龄在1至14岁之间。结果表明，所有三种方法都始终低估了身高（尸体长度）（最低低估2.9厘米，最高低估19.3厘米）。股骨/身高比提供的身高估计最不准确，其他两种方法也未能显著改善预测结果。使用下肢骨长度时，真实身高与估计身高之间的差异也最大。鉴于研究样本中的儿童生长环境并非最佳，与参与这些方法开发的儿童相比，他们发育迟缓且腿部相对较短。这表明身高估计方法并非普遍适用，而且人群内部的环境差异（例如社会经济地位差异）或不同国家之间现代化以及社会和经济发展水平的差异是儿童身高和身体比例变化的重要来源。如果不考虑这种差异，身高估计方法的误差在根据上肢骨长度估计身高时可在一定程度上最小化。
