Sex determination in Romanian mandible using discriminant function analysis: Comparative results of a time-efficient method

Abstract

In a forensic anthropology context, the mandible represents a reliable skeletal element with increased resistance to environmental factors. Sexual dimorphism assessment is most accurately obtained on population-specific computed discriminant functions. A previous study on 100 Romanian population mandibles has provided a discriminant function with an accuracy of 86% based on 7 measurements. The main purpose of the present study is to evaluate whether or not an increase in the sample number (200 mandibles) can produce a different discriminant function that will allow similar accuracy rates, but with fewer measurements. We have used 3 measurements (chin height, bigonial width and bicondylar breadth) that provided a discriminant function with an overall accuracy of determination of 84%, equal for male and female groups. The most dimorphic singular measurement was bigonial width, which provided a discriminant function with 80.5% accuracy when used alone. We concluded that a larger study sample allows similar accuracies of sex determination with fewer measurements, which in turn can improve the assessment of sexual dimorphism by using a time-efficient method.

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