Estimation of Stature from Hand Dimension among Indigenous Karbi Tribal Population of Assam, Northeast India

• Main Authors: Doloi IM Rongpi, Nitish Mondal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: JCDR Research and Publications Private Limited 2019-03-01
• Series: Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research
• Subjects: anthropometry; forensic anthropology; forensic science
• Online Access: https://jcdr.net/articles/PDF/12720/38438_CE[Ra1]_F(SL)_PF1(AG_KM)_PFA(KM)_PB(AG_SL)_PN(SL).pdf

Introduction: Estimation of stature is an important parameter in the personal identification from human remains such as hand, foot and limbs in forensic examination in the field of Forensic Anthropology. Aim: To understand the relationship between stature and hand dimensions among indigenous Karbi tribal population of Assam, Northeast India. Materials and Methods: The present community based crosssectional investigation was carried out among 300 (150 males and 150 females) adults of Karbi population of age group 20- 50 years of Karbi Anglong, Assam, India. Anthropometric measurements of stature, Hand Length (HL) and Hand Breadth (HB) were collected using standard anthropometric procedures. Descriptive statistics, paired t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation and regression analysis were applied using SPSS (version, 17.0). Results: The results indicated that female individuals exhibit significantly smaller stature and hand dimensions than their male counterparts (p<0.05). Using ANOVA, there were statistically significant differences in stature, HL and HB (p<0.05) between sexes. The bilateral difference was found to be statistically significant in HL and HB (p<0.05), but the difference found was not significant in HL among females (p>0.05). The Pearson correlation analysis showed that anthropometric measures of stature are positively correlated with LHL, RHL, LHB and RHB (p<0.01). The results showed that the sex-specific regression equations in linear and multiple linear equations showed significant coefficient correlation with stature and LHL, RHL, LHB and RHB (p<0.01). The mean differences between the actual and estimated stature using derived equations of hand dimensions were observed to be statistically not significant (p>0.05). Conclusion: The present study has successfully reported the possible relationships and estimation of stature from the HL and HB. Similar studies are also recommended for ethnic/population specific equation and/or utilise and validation of equations to estimate the stature from HL and HB.