AN ASSESSMENT OF SUBADULT SKELETAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT BASED ON A MICHIGAN MEDICAL EXAMINER SAMPLE

<p>When there is a high rate of subadults going through the medical examiner’s office (MEO), it is important to determine if there is a common underlying reason. The role of the MEO is to conduct forensic investigations, but also to assist with public health surveillance. Because these roles go hand-in-hand, the MEO often detects epidemics before any public health entity does. By evaluating the decedent’s length and weight-at-death and comparing them to expected values, based on their sex and age as published by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control, it can provide insight into their lives. When subadults are unidentified and go through the MEO, methods based on dental development or long bone measurements can be used to estimate age-at-death. Because the methods available for age estimation from long bone measurements are not based on data from modern populations, it is important to validate them. This study involved the evaluation of the length and weight measurements (collected at autopsy from decedents whose deaths were investigated by one Michigan MEO), and upper arm measurements (measured from radiographs, also collected at autopsy). The weight and length (measured crown to heel) were used to see if the decedents align with expected values; long bone measurements were used to estimate the skeletal age of the decedents. Overall, the decedents in this sample weigh more and have shorter lengths than expected, based on published standards, and the estimated ages of the full sample are not significantly different from their known ages-at-death.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Interdisciplinary

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Carroll, Megan E

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Jane Harris

• growth and development
• medical examiner's office (MEO)
• forensic investigation
• subadult skeletal system
• WHO growth charts
• CDC growth charts
• long bone measurements
• radiographs
• forensic anthropology
• Biological and Physical Anthropology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/890

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.nmu.edu:theses-1962