Estimation of Stature from Hand Dimension among Indigenous Karbi Tribal Population of Assam, Northeast India
HC01-HC07
Correspondence
Dr. Nitish Mondal,
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Assam University (Diphu Campus), Diphu-782462, Karbi Anglong, Assam, India.
E-mail: nitishanth@gmail.com
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 cross-sectional 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.