Morphometric Analysis of Clavicle Weight for Sex Determination in a Bangladeshi Sample

Background: Gender identification is a difficult task when to do from few bones. In medico-legal situations where accuracy is important, the conventional techniques are subjective and of little use. Hence, this study aimed to do metrical analysis of clavicular weight for the identification gender in a Bangladeshi sample. Materials and Methods: This quantitative analytical study was performed in the Department of Anatomy, Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College, Sylhet. There were 60 dry adult human clavicle analyzed, 29 were male and 31 were female clavicle. Initial gender identification was done based on the discriminant function analysis. The weight was measured using a physical balance. Demarking points were calculated by adding and subtracting three standard deviations from the mean value. The SPSS (version 22.0) used to analyze the data. Mean values compared by unpaired t-test, Cohen’s d effect size also calculated. The demarking points were further analyzed by Receiver-Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curve analysis to evaluate sensitivity and specificity of the sample. All the statistical tests were performed under 95% confidence interval, a p-value of <0.05 considered as statistically significant. Results: This study showed the mean weight of right male clavicle was 17.46±4.84gm and in female was 12.85±3.96gm.In contrast, the mean weight of left male’s clavicle was 18.91±6.09gm and in female was 12.36±3.35 gm. The mean differences between male and female gender found statistically significant both in right (d = 1.017, 95% CI: 1.171 – 8.049, p = 0.013) and left (d = 1.275, 95% CI: 2.985 – 10.115, p = <0.001) clavicle. The demarking points for the right clavicle were >24.73 in male and <2.94 in female, and for the left clavicle were >22.41 in male and <0.64 in female gender. ROC analysis showed that the area under curve (AUC) for right clavicle was 0.642 (95% CI: 0.433 – 0.851) and left clavicle was 0.526 (95% CI: 0.313 – 0.739). There were wide range of variation in sensitivity and specificity found between the demarking points between male and female gender in this study sample. Conclusion: The results of this study agree with the opinion that weight of the clavicle can be used as a tool for gender identification. However, recent advancement of statistical analysis showed necessity of reconsideration of the older method of gender identification.