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Little waifs: estimating child body size from historic skeletal material
Author(s) -
Visser Edward P.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
international journal of osteoarchaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1099-1212
pISSN - 1047-482X
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1212(199811/12)8:6<413::aid-oa430>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - humerus , femur , tibia , body weight , population , radiography , long bone , anthropometry , body height , orthodontics , medicine , anatomy , surgery , environmental health
Child body weight formulae are developed from two radiographic studies that have measured the mid‐diaphyses anteroposterior diameters of the humerus, femur and tibia. The results show that formulae that include a stature component are more reliable than those derived only from bone diameters and that formulae that use diameters of the femur or tibia to estimate body weight appear more to be reliable than those that use the diameter of the humerus. These formulae are applied to a historic nineteenth century child skeletal population excavated from a Sydney orphans cemetery. The results show that the orphans were shorter and lighter than comparable nineteenth century children. This difference is attributed to disrupted growth rates due to poor nutrition and health of children prior to their admission to the orphanage. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.