Gudaji et al., J Biomed & App Sci FUD (2024) 3:1
Keywords: Age, Estimation, Head length, Kazaure emirate, Stature
2024-06-28 DOI: JOBASFUD_2024_3_1_010
Background: Stature is the natural height and built of a human body or a person. It has been one of the most important factors in description of the human body characteristics. Various types of parameters are used in estimating stature of human body. Assessing the height of an individual from measurement of different parts of the body has been of importance to forensic scientists, anthropologists and archeologists. The aim of this study is to estimate stature of school children aged 5-12 years from Kazaure Emirate of Jigawa State, Nigeria using head length. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 863 primary school pupils from the four local government areas in Kazaure Emirate. Their height and head length were measured using stadiometer and sliding caliper respectively. Correlation and regression equation were carried out to establish the relationship between head length and height. Results: Sexual dimorphism in height and head length between males and females were statistically significant with p=0.041 and p<0.0001 respectively. Similarly, males had higher height and head length than females by age groups with statistically significant difference p=0.004 and p=0.001 at 5-7years, p<0.0001 and p<0.0001 at 8-10 years, p<0.0001 and p<0.0001 at 11-12 years respectively. A statistically significant positive correlation between head length and height was obtained to be r=0.427 for the population (p=0.01), and r=0.444 for females (p=0.01) and, r=0.402 for males, (p=0.01) respectively. Conclusion: The findings from this study can be successfully used for estimating stature, if this part of the body could be obtained in a crime scene where greater parts are mutilated or dismembered. And this may help in forensic investigations.