title: Can Cephalometrics Discriminate Between the Sexes in a Diverse Juvenile Sample?
abstract: A critical component of the biological profile is sex estimation. Methods commonly used for sex estimation in adults do not work well for juveniles. Population-specific studies have used cephalometrics to estimate juvenile sex with 80-90% accuracy. Our study attempts to estimate sex in individuals less than 18 years of age using a sample of 1618 lateral cephalograms incorporating all three Angle Class occlusions as well as population diversity. For the sample as a whole, 10 skeletal cephalometrics were found to have significant differences between the sexes. Males and females classify correctly about 50% of the time. Dividing the sample by age groups and race/ethnicity improves results for older age groups and Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. Our results indicate that cephalometrics are not useful in determining sex of unidentified juveniles when age and race are not known.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology and Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, MSC01-1040, Anthropology 1, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131.
authors.forename: Alexis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: O'Donnell
authors.affiliation: UNM Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center, MSC 09 5100, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-0001.|Department of Health Informatics and Information Management, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS.
authors.forename: Shamsi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Daneshvari Berry
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology and Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, MSC01-1040, Anthropology 1, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131.|UNM Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center, MSC 09 5100, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-0001.
authors.forename: Heather J H
authors.initials: HJH
authors.lastname: Edgar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002508:Cephalometry; D002648:Child; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044469:Racial Groups; D054881:Sex Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*; D012886:Skull / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*
keywords: cephalometry; discriminant analysis; forensic science; human identification; sex determination by skeleton; sex dimorphism