A paleoepidemiological approach to the osteological paradox: Investigating stress, frailty and resilience through cribra orbitalia

Clare McFadden · Marc Fredrick Oxenham

67 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology

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Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies History of Medicine Studies Paleopathology and ancient diseases

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The Osteological Paradox posits that skeletal lesions may differentially be interpreted as representing resilience or frailty. However, specific consideration of the etiologies and demographic distributions of individual skeletal indicators can inform the criteria on which to differentiate stress, frailty, and resilience. Adopting a life history approach and adaptive plasticity model, this study proposes a framework for the analysis and interpretation of a commonly reported skeletal lesion, cribra orbitalia, which considers the underlying mechanisms of the condition, the clinical and epidemiological literature relating to anemia and malnutrition, and the bioarcheological evidence. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were extracted from the European (n = 33 populations) and American (n = 19 populations) modules of the Global History of Health Project. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were applied, where time was the age-at-death, and the factor or covariate was presence or absence of cribra orbitalia. RESULTS: Of 37 samples that produced significant results, 21 demonstrated a change in relationship when the subadults were excluded from analysis. When subadults were included, individuals with cribra orbitalia present had statistically significant lower survival time. With subadults excluded, the relationship either became nonsignificant or was reversed. DISCUSSION: We demonstrate that in many cases the inclusion of subadults in analysis impacts upon the apparent mortality associated with cribra orbitalia. Examining cribra orbitalia in children and adults has two separate goals: in children, to determine the prevalence and risk of death associated with active lesions and stress; and in adults, to determine whether childhood health assaults that cause cribra orbitalia are associated with frailty or resilience.

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References

2003Identification of Pathological Conditions in Human Skeletal Remains 1986Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture.1992The Osteological Paradox: Problems of Inferring Prehistoric Health from Skeletal Samples [and Comments and Reply]1997Bioarchaeology 2002The Backbone of History 2015Bioarchaeology 1988Biocultural perspectives on stress in prehistoric, historical, and contemporary population research 2015The Osteological Paradox 20 Years Later: Past Perspectives, Future Directions

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2023Skeletal manifestations of disease experience: Length of illness and porous cranial lesion formation in a contemporary juvenile mortality sample 2021Cribriotic lesions in archaeological human skeletal remains. Prevalence, co-occurrence, and association in medieval and early modern Netherlands 2022Frequency and co‐occurrence of porous skeletal lesions in identified non‐adults from Portugal (19th to 20th centuries) and its association with respiratory infections as cause of death 2023Beyond the report: Prospects and challenges in forensic anthropological investigations of structural vulnerability

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