San-Millán Marta, Rissech Carme, Turbón Daniel
Secció de Zoologia i Antropologia, Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 643, 08028, Barcelona, Spain.
School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK.
Int J Legal Med. 2017 Mar;131(2):501-525. doi: 10.1007/s00414-016-1406-4. Epub 2016 Jun 30.
Age estimation is essential to the human identification process, both in forensic and archeological contexts. Based on the previous male-specific method of Rissech et al. (J Forensic Sci, 2006, 51:213-229), a new approach to age estimation based on the acetabulum has been described and evaluated in 611 individuals from the Lisbon Collection (Lisbon, Portugal). This paper has two main goals: (1) to revise and better define the variables of Rissech's method related to the acetabular fossa, namely, variables 5, 6, and 7, and (2) to extend the applicability of this new approach to both sexes while analyzing age-related sex differences in the acetabular aging process. The results demonstrate the suitability of combining acetabulum traits and a Bayesian approach to estimating age in adults of both sexes. This study has confirmed the usefulness of the redefined variables of the acetabular fossa when age-related changes are considered. Furthermore, the newly defined variables have good to excellent values of repeatability. The study has also extended the method's applicability to females. The revised method has absolute error averages of 7.28 years for males and 7.09 years for females, based on a sex-specific reference sample. In addition, approximately 74 % of the individuals estimated had an absolute error less than 10 years. Interestingly, the acetabular aging process follows similar trends in both sexes, but the aging rate seems to be different between males and females, especially in middle-aged individuals. Despite the fact that the age estimates, on average, did not improve significantly with the use of a sex-specific reference sample, it is recommended that the sexes be analyzed separately due to the differences in aging rates and inaccuracy values.
年龄估计在法医和考古领域的人类身份识别过程中至关重要。基于Rissech等人先前针对男性的方法（《法医学杂志》，2006年，第51卷：213 - 229页），一种基于髋臼的年龄估计新方法已在来自里斯本藏品（葡萄牙里斯本）的611名个体中进行了描述和评估。本文有两个主要目标：（1）修订并更好地定义Rissech方法中与髋臼窝相关的变量，即变量5、6和7；（2）在分析髋臼老化过程中与年龄相关的性别差异时，将这种新方法的适用性扩展到两性。结果表明，结合髋臼特征和贝叶斯方法来估计两性成年人的年龄是合适的。本研究证实了在考虑与年龄相关的变化时，重新定义的髋臼窝变量的有用性。此外，新定义的变量具有良好到优异的重复性值。该研究还将该方法的适用性扩展到了女性。基于特定性别的参考样本，修订后的方法男性的平均绝对误差为7.28岁，女性为7.09岁。此外，估计的个体中约74%的绝对误差小于10岁。有趣的是，髋臼老化过程在两性中遵循相似的趋势，但男性和女性的老化速率似乎不同，尤其是在中年个体中。尽管使用特定性别的参考样本后年龄估计平均没有显著改善，但由于老化速率和误差值的差异，建议对两性分别进行分析。
