Determination of sex by discriminant function analysis of mandibles from a Central Indian population

CONTEXT: Identification of sex from skeletal remains is one of the important forensic considerations. Discriminant function analysis is increasingly used to determine the sex from skeleton. AIMS: To develop discriminant function to determine sex from mandible in a Central Indian population. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This was a prospective study done at the Department of Anatomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The mandibles used in the present study were from the museum specimens. Only 82 adult mandibles (55 male and 27 female) that had been preserved were selected. Ten mandibular parameters were measured. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Statistical analysis was conducted using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows, version 16. The level of statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. RESULTS: Using stepwise discriminant function analysis, only six variables were selected as the best discriminant between sexes, with the projection length of corpus mandibulae being the most dimorphic. It was observed that sex classification accuracy of the discriminant functions ranged from 57.3 to 80.5% for the individual variables, 81.7% for the stepwise method, and 85.4% for the direct method. CONCLUSION: The results of the study show that mandibles can be used for determining sex and the results are comparable with other similar studies. The studied mandibular variables showed sexual dimorphism with an accuracy comparable with other skeletal remains, next to cranium and pelvis.