ESTIMATION OF HEIGHT FROM THE LONG BONES OF UPPERLIMB AND HAND DIMENSIONS IN SOUTH INDIAN POPULATION

Abstract

Establishment of an identity is very much important in both civil and criminal cases. Stature is one of the criteria of personal identification. Many studies have shown that limbs exhibit consistent ratios relatives to the total height of a person. A very little work has been done for stature estimation from foot length, foot width, and tibia length and fibula length in Kerala state. The present study is an attempt to evaluate a possible correlation between stature of an individual & four parameters of Lower limb; foot-length, foot-width, fibula length & tibia length individually in a local population of Kerala. A sample of 359 medical students studying in KMCT Medical College & Hospital was considered & measurements were taken for each of the parameters. Stature and lower limb length measurements of each one of them were taken using standard instruments.. It was found that all the four parameters showed a correlation with stature but at different degrees. Tibia length showed the highest degree of correlation (r=0.877). Mathematical formulae for estimating stature were developed for each of these parameters through basic linear regression. It can be concluded that the present study has provided regression equations for four different parameters that can be used for stature estimation in the population of Kerala