Relationship between Stature and Hand Parameters in Adults- An Autopsy Study

Introduction: Estimation of stature is important in the process of identifying unknown and co-mingled human remains in mass casualties and natural disasters. Forensic experts are asked by the investigating officer to help to identify the person from dismembered parts of the body and skeletal remains. Estimation of stature is based on a principle that every body part bears more or less a constant relationship with height of an individual. Literature have documented that the hand parameters can be successfully used for stature estimation. Aim: To determine the relevance of hand parameters in the estimation of stature and also to derive a regression formula for stature from the hand parameters. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Government TD Medical College, Alappuzha, Kerala, India, from June 2017 to June 2018. A total of 210 postmortem cases aged above 20 years were included in present study for the comparison of stature, hand length and hand breadth based on age were measured using standard methodology. Average of measurements of right and left hands were taken. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise height, hand breadth and hand length. Categorical and continuous variables were expressed as mean±SD. Correlation was done using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and t-test and predictive equations obtained using Karl Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Results: A total of 210 included 157 males and 53 females, and maximum subjects (78,37.1%) belonged to the age group 41-60 years. Hand length and hand breadth showed significant correlation with stature in both males and females with a significant p-value <0.01. Statistically significant age-related difference between the age groups 21-40 years, age 41-60 years was noted in stature, average hand length and hand breadth. The study variables like stature, hand length and hand breadth showed statistically significant higher values for males than females. It was observed that though both hand parameters showed positive correlation with stature, hand length was more predictive in both sexes. Regression equations for estimation of stature from hand length and breadth were derived for males, females and also for the total population irrespective of the gender in cases when only hand length or hand breadth is available and also when both hand length and breadth are available. Conclusion: From the data obtained it can be concluded that estimation of stature can be done with reasonable accuracy using hand parameters with hand length showing greater correlation with stature than hand breadth in both sexes. Though statistically significant, the correlation coefficient for females was considerably less using both hand parameters.