FOOT MORPHOMETRY IN THE DIFFERENTIATION AND DETERMINATION OF SEX AMONG IGBO INDIGENE OF IMO STATE EXTRACTION IN NIGERIA
Osuchukwu I. William*, Paul W. Chikwuogwo and Aigbogun (Jr) O. Eric
ABSTRACT
Background: In the evaluation and estimation of the big four; age, race, sex and stature, anthropometry has been of great assistance and a dependable tool. The foot is always wholly or partly available in situation involving mass disaster, therefore may become essential in predicting the any or all of the big fours. Objectives: This study was therefore carried out to estimate sex from foot morphometry of Igbo indigenes of Imo extraction in Nigeria. Materials and Methods: 300males and 246 females were used in this study. The following foot parameters (foot length [FL] foot breadth [FB], foot height [FH] medial arch length [MAL] and navicular height [NH]) were measured using standard protocols. SPSS version 23 (IBM, USA) Discriminant Functional Analysis (DFA) was used the possibility and level of accuracy the measured foot dimensions could be used to achieve sex categorisation. Results: The result showed that all foot dimensions were significantly greater in male than in females (P<0.01). In the development of the DF model, the dimensions which contributed the most to the outcome of the model were RFL=0.822, RFH=0.755, LFH=0.723 and LFL=0.706 while RMFB, LMFB, LMAL, and RFFB, had average prediction coefficient of 0.50-0.588 and RNH, LNH, RHFB and LHFB had prediction coefficients less than 0.40. The prediction model provided a centroid mean of 0.406 for male and -0.495 for female; with an accuracy of 65.2% after cross-validation. Conclusion: Foot dimensions exhibits significant sex-discriminatory characteristics; but it cannot be completely rely upon as an independent factor due to its average prediction accuracy. However, the dimensions can be used as an adjunct in medicolegal investigations requiring sex determination.
Keywords: Foot morphometry, Sex differentiation, Discriminant Functional Analysis, Igbo indigenes.
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