Upper Limb Anthropometric Measurements of Iranian Medical Students for Estimating Sex and Stature

Abstract

Background: Stature and sex estimation according to surface anatomical landmarks is applicable for personal identification in forensic medicine. Objectives: The present study aimed to prepare a comprehensive reference of four main upper limb anthropometric dimensions in Iranian adults and make a formula for predicting sex and stature according to them. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, four main anthropometric dimensions of the upper limb, including arm length, forearm length, hand length, and hand width of 280 Iranian adults aged 20 - 24 years, were measured according to surface anatomical landmarks. To determine sex differences, we divided the collected measures into two groups: (1) study (120 males and 120 females); and (2) test (20 males and 20 females) groups. Sexual dimorphism indicator and discriminant functions were conducted on the study group and were validated according to the test group. The relativity of stature with measured dimensions was done by a simple linear regression test in the male and female groups. Results: All upper limb measurements were potent to determine gender, but forearm length displayed the highest accuracy of 94.2 - 95% and 95 - 100% for the study and test groups, respectively. Regression analysis revealed that arm length had the highest correlation with stature (22.2% for males and 18.41% for females). Conclusions: We prepared a sex and stature estimation formula based on four upper limb anthropometric dimensions in Iranian adults that can be used in the forensic and clinical fields.

Quantification and analysis of human hand anthropometry: an Iraqi study

“…Moreover, Bahraini [41] males outgrew other Middle East populations in the hand breadth with 88.9 mm whereas Omani [43] males appeared to have the smallest hand breadth with 77.6 mm. Iranian [42] females with a value of 78.4 mm and Jordanian [35] females with a value of 77.8 mm had the largest hand breadth average measurements, while Sudanese [37] females appeared to have the smallest hand breadth with 70.6 mm. As can be observed, Turkish [38] had the smallest difference between the male and female mean hand breadth with more than 2 mm gap, while most other Middle East populations had about 10 mm hand breadth difference in both genders.…”

“…This study compares the variations in hand anthropometric measurements of selected ten Middle Eastern populations. Overall, it can be observed that among these ten nations, Omani [43] and Saudi Arabian [39] males had the longest hand with 202.2 mm and 201.1 mm respectively, while Iraqi and Iranian [42] males' appeared to have the shortest hands with 187.36 mm and 188.2 mm respectively. In females, Saudi Arabian [39] and Egyptian [36] hands were the longest with 186.5 mm and 181.32 mm respectively, while Lebanese [40] and Jordanian [35] females' appeared to have the shortest hands with 171.0 mm and 171.3 mm respectively.…”