Regression equations for stature reconstruction from the lower limb bones of contemporary White South Africans

Figures & data

Table 1. Age (years) distribution of White South African male and female participants.

Age range	Males	Females
21–25	4	26
26–30	6	6
31–35	10	1
36–40	5	2
41–45	1	2
46–50	0	3
51–55	2	2
56–60	2	2
Total	30	44

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of the sample age (years), height (cm) and bone measurements (cm).[AQ]

	Male			Females
Variables	n	Mean	Std. Dev	n	Mean	Std. Dev	t-statistic	p-value
Age	30	34.7	10.0	44	30.0	11.6	−4.700	0.075
LSM	30	178.1	6.3	44	166.4	6.5	−7.620	<0.0001
TSHMeas	30	161.2	6.2	44	149.2	5.3	−8.893	<0.0001
FBC	30	47.8	2.2	44	44.5	2.3	−6.276	<0.0001
TCM	30	39.2	2.5	44	36.2	2.1	−5.703	<0.0001

Table 3. Comparison of measured skeletal height and skeletal height using Dayal et al.’s ⁹ equations, as well as measured living stature (LSM) and living stature estimates (ELS) using Loubser’s ³⁴ and Cloete’s ³³ equations for White South African males and females, respectively.

Variables	Males					Females
	Correlation	MD	MAD	t	p-value	Correlation	MD	MAD	t	p-value
TSH Meas & TSHD (FBC)	0.91	0.00	1.75	0.00	1.00	0.89	−3.06	3.36	2.54	0.01
TSH Meas & TSHD (TCM)	0.92	0.64	1.99	−0.41	0.69	0.89	−1.71	2.53	1.40	0.16
TSH Meas & TSHD (FBC+TCM)	0.93	0.00	1.57	0.00	1.00	0.92	−2.41	2.80	1.97	0.05
LSM & ELS (FBC)	0.85	3.49	4.08	−2.43	0.02	0.86	−2.80	3.32	2.04	0.04
LSM & ELS (TCM)	0.87	4.09	4.45	−2.62	0.01	0.83	−1.30	3.07	0.94	0.35
LSM & ELS (FBC+TCM)	0.88	3.46	4.03	−2.28	0.03	0.87	−2.10	2.98	1.50	0.15

Table 4. Comparison of measured living stature with estimated living stature using Dayal et al’s⁹ equation and sex-specific soft tissue correction factor*.

			% in range
Equations	MD	MAD	1 SEE	2 SEE
Female
2.64×FBC+34.69	**-2.8	3.3	59.1	79.5
2.86×TCM+47.52	−1.3	3.1	63.6	86.4
1.44×(FBC+TCM)+35.42	−2.1	3.0	59.1	93.2
Male
2.30×FBC+51.17	3.5	4.1	26.7	56.7
2.49×TCM+62.92	4.1	4.4	23.3	43.3
1.27×(FBC+TCM)+50.67	3.5	4.0	23.3	56.7

MD = Mean difference

MAD = Mean absolute deviation

SEE = Standard error of estimate

*Soft tissue factor of Cloete³³for females and Loubser³⁴for males

**Negative values indicate a tendency of overestimation by the soft tissue correction factor, while positive values indicate a tendency of underestimation

Table 5. New equations for stature estimation (cm) in White South Africans, correlation and standard error of estimate.

					% in range
Equations	Correlation	F-statistic	p-value	SEE	1 SEE	2 SEE
Female
2.50 (FBC) + 54.94	0.86	121.82	<0.001	3.35	72.7	95.5
2.56 (TCM) + 73.97	0.83	92.38	<0.001	3.70	72.7	95.5
1.76 (FBC) + 0.88 (TCM) + 56.23	0.87	64.66	<0.001	3.29	77.3	95.5
Male
2.47 (FBC) + 59.80	0.85	71.85	<0.001	3.39	70.0	96.7
2.25 (TCM) + 89.79	0.87	89.96	<0.001	3.12	66.7	100.0
0.72 (FBC) + 1.65 (TCM) + 78.70	0.88	45.25	<0.001	3.13	73.3	100.0
Generic
2.86 (FBC) + 40.05	0.91	347.32	<0.001	3.59	64.9	96.0
2.85 (TCM) + 64.586	0.89	288.07	<0.001	3.87	67.6	96.0
1.87 (FBC) + 1.07 (TCM) + 45.48	0.92	188.65	<0.001	3.47	64.9	94.6

SEE = Standard error of estimate

*Significant correlation at p < 0.05

Table 6. Comparison of standard errors of estimate (SEE) for the present study and previous studies by different authors.

		Femur		Tibia
Authors and date	Population	r	SEE	r	SEE
Males
Trotter & Gleser, 1952^Citation13	White Americans (military)	0.87	3.27	–	–
Trotter & Gleser, 1952^Citation13	Black Americans (military)	0.77	3.93	–	–
Lundy & Feldesman, 1987^Citation7	Black South African	0.90	2.78	0.869	2.78
Muñoz et al., 2001^Citation54	Spanish	0.85	–	0.876	–
Dayal et al., 2008^Citation9	White South African	0.92	2.64	0.88	3.16
Lee et al., 2014^Citation55	Korean (max femur length)	0.86	3.21	–	–
Chiba et al., 2018^Citation56	Japanese	–	3.81	–	–
Bidmos & Brits, 2020^Citation32	Black South African	0.88	2.58	0.878	2.58
Current study	White South African	0.85	3.39	0.87	3.12
Females
Trotter & Gleser, 1952^Citation13	White Americans (Terry)	0.85	3.78	–	–
Lundy & Feldesman 1987^Citation7	Black South African	0.90	2.789	0.873	3.056
Muñoz et al., 2001^Citation54	Spanish	0.85	–	0.812	–
Dayal et al., 2008^Citation9	White South African	0.93	2.4	0.91	2.59
Lee et al., 2016^Citation55	Korean (max femur length)	0.89	3.47
Chiba et al., 2018^Citation56	Japanese	–	3.61	–	–
Bidmos & Brits, 2020^Citation32	Black South African	0.88	2.56	0.792	3.28
Current study	White South African	0.86	3.35	0.83	3.7

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