Abstract
Background: Stature/height is one of the most important variables used for identification of a person. Knowing the relationship between stature and different anatomical anthropometric parameters will aid forensic scientists, Anatomists and Medical scientists to estimate standing height from mutilated remains of body parts in forensic investigation. And it’s a necessity when measuring height is unenviable due to certain medical conditions and in field studies. There are multitude of studies done in different areas of the world on prediction of stature from Arm Span in adults, but it’s rarely tried in adolescents and the situation is worse in our country. As my search has shown this study is the first of its kinds in addressing the issue in the area.
Methods: A high school based cross-sectional study was carried out among 416 High school students in Benue from May to June 2021. Stratified multi-stage sampling techniques were used to select the study participants. Anthropometric measurement including weight, height, Arm Span was measured. Data entry was done by Epi-Data a version 4.4.3.1 and data analysis was carried out by SPSS for windows version 23. And regression models and multiplication factors were generated for determination of height from anthropometric parameters.
Result: Out of the total participants 51.4% were females and 48.6% were males. The mean height of study participants was 164.36 ± 8.89 cm for males and 155.75 ± 5.86 for females. The correlation coefficients (R) of anatomical anthropometric measurements with height were: arm span (males R = 0.843, females R = 0.708), right arm length (males R = 0.806, females R = 0.635), left arm length (males R =0.813, females R = 0.636), right tibial length (males R = 0.738, females R = 0.611), and left tibial length (males R = 0.744, females R = 0.599).
Conclusion:The findings connotes that in circumstances where height cannot be measured, stature predicted from arm span is a valid indicator of height. Arm span was appeared to be the best predictor of stature.
Keywords: stature, arm span, arm length, tibial length, determination
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Backgroundof study
The measurement of stature is important in many settings. Stature measurement is required for the evaluation of children’s growth, calculation of nutritional indices of children and adults, prediction and standardization of physiological variables such as lung volumes (Golshan, Crapo, Amra, Jensen, & Golshan, 2007), muscle strength, glomerular filtration, metabolic rate, and for the tailoring of drug dosage in patients (Zverev, 2003). However, in some cases the accurate stature cannot be determined directly because of deformities of the limbs or in patients who have undergone amputations. Measuring stature can also be difficult in physically and mentally frail nursing home patients, e.g. patients that are wheelchair-bound or bedridden and those with osteoporosis, sequelae after hip fractures, or stroke. In such situations, an estimate of stature has to be derived from other reliable anthropometric indicators. These estimations help in predicting age-related loss in stature, identifying individuals with disproportionate growth abnormalities and skeletal dysplasia or stature loss during surgical procedures on the spine. These measurements have also found application in normalizing pulmonary function in scoliosis (Golshan, et al., 2007). It could also be utilized in sport settings in estimating the stature of wheelchair athletes or other sports individuals with disabilities involving amputation of a leg, or other deformities. Additionally, in many older people it is difficult, if not impossible, to measure standing stature accurately because of mobility problems and kyphosis (Hickson & Frost, 2003). Therefore, measurements of other body segments like arm span (Hickson & Frost, 2003; Jalzem& Gledhill, 1993; Yun, et al., 1995; Mohanty, Babu, & Nair, 2001), demi-span (Hickson & Frost, 2003; Weinbrenner, Vioque, Barber & Asensio, 2006), knee height (Hickson & Frost, 2003; Neruda, 2004), skull (Bidmos&Asala, 2005; Bidmos, 2006), scapula (Campobasso, Di-Vella, &Introna, 1998) and vertebral column length (Nagesh & Pradeep, 2006) can be used as an alternative to estimate standing stature.
Several studies have reported the effectiveness of using various body variables in estimating stature (Jalzem& Gledhill, 1993; Yun, et al., 1995; Mohanty, Babu, & Nair, 2001; Hickson & Frost, 2003) and arm span was found to be the most reliable. However, correlations between arm span and stature have been shown to vary in different ethnic groups (Steele & Chenier, 1990; Reeves, Varakamin, & Henry, 1996; Brown, Feng, & Knapp, 2002). Even though several studies of this nature are available on western populations, hardly has such a study been reported for Nigerian students. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the stature of students from arm span in Benue state University.
The anatomical method cannot be used commonly by forensic anthropologists in the determination of height due to lack of the complete skeletal elements of victims which is always the case in mass disasters. It is then obvious why forensic anthropologists most of the time use mathematical method for estimating height from the few fragmented part of the body (Lukpata et al., 2015).
1.2 Statement of the problem
Forensic cases based on human body remains of an individual often include prediction of stature; the predicted stature is then compared with both reported and recorded stature of missing individuals. This potentially useful characteristic is generally omitted for skeletal remains of a child, however, In case of child skeletal remains, long bones are used to estimate age rather than stature(Smith et al., 2007).
This condition is understandable. For a kid, age is a fundamental distinguishing factor than tallness. At times, for example, those including mixing together of remains or casualties of war or mass calamities, stature determination were significant. For example, in the Oklahoma case with two missing young girls of comparative age where detailed and stature determination dependent on a femoral length end up being basic in the last distinguishing proof of one of the young girls(Snow et al., 2003).
As of late, establishing the personality of a person from remains of body part has become a significant need because of huge frequency of natural and manmade debacles like quakes, waves, floods, bomb impacts, mass mishaps, building breakdown, wars, and plane accidents which cause mass fatalities. For example WHO report demonstrates that every year more than 1.24 million individuals bite the dust with just car accidents and 90% of death is from low and middle income nations and kids and teenagers take the most weight of the casualty(Nihal et al., 2014).
As indicated by WHO yearly catastrophic event measurable audit of 2015, in average 380 cataclysmic events happened every year around the world and cause death of 199.2 million individuals from 2005 to 2014 overall like manmade disasters kids and juvenile take the most weight of death from these natural disasters.(Nihal et al., 2014).When such debacles occurred only remains of body parts were found, this cause difficulty to build complete biological profile of the victims, so determination of height from various body part may assume fundamental role in criminological anthropological field to fill the gap of biological profile for recognition of person after death(Wakode et al., 2015).
Last year similar identification problem was encountered in deadly plane crash in Bishoftu, Nigeria. The plane with model of Boeing 737 max 8, with flight number of ET 302 were heading to Nairobi the capital of Kenya from Bole international airport, Benue. There were 157 passengers and crew members in the plane from more than 35 nations and with different age groups. No survivors were found and only the fragmented and mutilated body parts were found and used for identification of the victims.
Even if standing height plays a big role in personal recognition of a person in case of medico legitimate cases and in many clinical situations, there are numerous conditions which frustrate the immediate determination of standing stature like loss of motion, fractures, amputations, scoliosis and pain, in these conditions segmental length of the body is used to predict height.(Quanjer et al., 2014).
Age, gender, ethnicity, climatic condition, nutrition, hereditary components are accepted to be the fundamental determinant variables of the physical appearance of a person. Therefore, most regression models generated are meant to be specific for a particular region. Consequently, equations inferred around the world can be utilized uniquely in that specific area of study and for that specific age bunch in which the investigation was done.(Lohman et al., 2008) It is, therefore, mandatory to derive regression models which are age group, gender, ethnic, and geographic area specific. As my search has shown, there is no study done in Nigeria in adolescents below 18 years of age on estimating stature from different anthropometric parameters, so this study is the first of its kind in the region to address this issue.
1.3 Significance of the study
Understanding the connection between stature and diverse anthropometric parameters will support forensic researchers, Anatomists and Medical scientists to predict stature from dismantled body parts in criminological assessments which will help in identification of person.
In addition, the findings of this study will be used as an alternative measure of standing height of adolescents in a number of clinical conditions which hinder the measurement of height like chronically ill adolescent who cannot stand from bed and for adolescents with limb deformities.
Also, the discoveries of this study will be utilized as an elective measure of standing stature of young people in various clinical conditions which impede the measurement of height like incessantly sick adolescents who can’t stand from bed and for teenagers with spinal and limb deformities.
There are several research completed in many areas of the world on determination of stature from Arm Span in adults, but it’s hardly ever tried in youngsters and the scenario is worse in our country. And finding of this study is the first of its sorts in representing children of age beneath 18.
Besides, the finding of this study will help a great deal by giving alternative measure of height in field contemplates where direct measurement of stature becomes troublesome due to none transportability and availability specific instruments utilized for height measurement.
The discoveries of this study will likewise be utilized as a source of perspective information for further detailed studies on the issue.
