A sedentary lifestyle, characterised by a lack of physical activity, negatively influences Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI may be related to the prevalence of flat feet. This study aims to observe the occurrence of flat feet in young children and determine its association with BMI. Additionally, it aims to analyse foot loading in the forefoot, midfoot and rearfoot. Dynamographic records of children (N = 142; age = 10.3 ± 0.21 years) were collected during walking, and foot-type evaluations were conducted using a force plate. A normal foot type was observed in 44% of children (BMI 16.0 ± 2.3 kg/m). Flat feet were observed in 54% of children (BMI 18.4 ± 4.3 kg/m). A high foot arch was observed in only 2% of children (BMI 16.0 ± 1.3 kg/m). Children with flat feet had higher BMI values than those with normal feet. The contact time and maximal vertical force in the forefoot and rearfoot were similar in children with normal and flat feet. Significantly higher pressure values were observed in the midfoot zone of children with flat feet. Regression analysis results showed that in children with flat feet, there is a decrease in forefoot loading and an increase in midfoot loading with increasing BMI. This trend was not observed in children with normal feet. We recommend incorporating exercise interventions at this age to prevent pain and promote willingness to engage in physical activity. Higher BMI values indicate an increased risk for the prevalence of flat feet.

Somatotype and body composition (BC) are related to athletes' physical fitness and performance. The aims of this study were (a) to determine the somatotype and BC profiles of children and adolescent male basketball players and (b) to investigate the relationship between somatotype and BC. Four hundred forty-nine children and adolescent male basketball players between the ages of 7-17 participated in the study voluntarily. Somatotype scores were determined according to the Heath & Carter method, and BC was evaluated by the bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) method. Pearson correlation test was used to determine the relationship between somatotype and BC. A significant positive relationship between body mass (BM), body fat (BF), body mass index (BMI), and fat mass (FM) with endomorphy and mesomorphy scores; a significant negative relationship between body height (BH) with endomorphy and mesomorphy scores were found. In addition, ectomorphy scores were significantly positively correlated with BH and negative with other parameters. This current research shows that as age increases, BH, BM, BMI, and FM increase, and BF, endomorphy, and mesomorphy scores decrease. With increasing age, the somatotype score changes from endomorphic mesomorphy (5-7-2) to balanced mesomorphy (3-6-3). The comprehensive data presented in this study can serve as a reference value and be used as an indicator for children and adolescent basketball coaches.

This research is the first of its kind to assess of the impact of respiratory illnesses and airborne diseases (acronymized as "RIAD" hereafter) on Swiss mortality in the long run, between the 16 and the 21 century CE. It reviews historical, demographical, statistical, medical, and bioarchaeological, primary and secondary data originating from archive material or previously published specific analyses into the topic (n = 55). An innovative intersectional and multidisciplinary approach was developed in order to apprehend, collect, organize, and analyze data stemming from several different disciplinary fields. Through this approach, this research endeavors to answer the following questions: 1) what are the social and environmental factors guiding the risk or not of suffering from RIAD, 2) do these factors appear to be constant on a territorial scale and through time, 3) can the evolution of RIAD occurrences be correlated to the local history of a particular region? And 4) does a better understanding of RIAD dynamics in the past allow us to draw any useful lessons for their future sustainable management? Accordingly, collected raw data were converted and normalized into crude mortality, natality, and RIAD mortality rates per thousand individuals and subsequently set within the demographic and epidemiological transition model. This model serves as a relevant reading grid for the understanding of the pathological and demographic evolutions that this study highlights. Indeed, this data compilation effort enabled to reconstruct crude birth and death rates for Switzerland from 1580 CE to the present day and to present the latter in graphical form. This graphical presentation is a breakthrough in the field of RIAD research in Switzerland and further enabled to assess internal data coherence and trend evolutions by means of joinpoint regression analysis. Main results include the confirmation of the considerable impact of industrialization on the respiratory health of peri-alpine populations. They also underline the selective and versatile nature of the pressure exerted by respiratory diseases on specific socio-economic and demographic classes, whose composition has varied through time. This research was impeded by the uneven quality of the available sources. Nonetheless, it still provides a robust outlook on the longue-durée evolution of respiratory health. The obtained results might thus be of interest to a wide array of scholars active in the study of respiratory diseases through time, but also clinicians and health policy makers, as this study highlights particular aspect of the current health situation, and the future worldwide challenges posed notably by global urbanization, with regard to respiratory health issues. Future research could develop similar approaches in neighboring regions, or focus on specific types of RIAD, in order to contrast other local pathological signatures with the one presented in this manuscript.

Dental profiling is the process of analyzing teeth to identify a victim or skeletal remains when no antemortem data are available. Using dental profiling techniques, we can determine the age, sex, and population of the individual and gather data about their socio-economic status, personal habits, oral and systemic health, occupation, nutrition, family relationships, and psychological characteristics. The research aims to gain insights into the diet, health, socio-economic status, and demography of the Late Iron Age inhabitants of Illyrian origin who lived on the Croatian island of Korcula. This will be achieved by analyzing the remains of teeth and jaw bones found in the Kopila necropolis. The research sample comprised 479 permanent teeth and jawbone remains from three tombs that belong to the collection of the Vela Luka Culture Centre on the island of Korcula. The analysis of the teeth included an examination of their morphological and pathological characteristics as well as metric and non-metric variables. Additionally, the stable isotopes of carbon (C, C), nitrogen (N), and strontium (Sr) were chemically analyzed. Odontometry was used as a metric variable and the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System (ASUDAS) was used as a non-metric variable to determine sex. The research findings indicate that healthy teeth are present with a frequency of dental caries of 5.85% and tooth wear of 85.18%. There is morphological atypicality in the number of roots of the upper premolars and taurodontism in the molars. Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen show values of d C = -19.5 (±0.1) and d N = 8.6 (±0.1). The ratio C/N is 3.4. The values of Sr/Sr in the dental enamel are 0.7084000.708433, whereas in bones they are 0.7081490.708471 (±1s 0.0000160.000034). The Illyrian community on the island of Korcula relied primarily on agriculture for their food, consuming only cereals, vegetables, and meat from domesticated animals. They did not extensively use marine resources. They were in good health generally. The individuals examined were native residents of the island and can be associated through their dental morphology with the Western Eurasian population group. The average lifespan of the population corresponds to the typical life expectancy during the Late Iron Age.

Discussions of the evolution of sexual dimorphism in torso shape and the pectoral region assume that this dimorphism exists independently of body size. We test this assumption in two human populations and further examine what is needed to understand sexual dimorphism in the pectoral region. Modern human males have broad shoulders and narrow hips relative to females, lending males a more triangular torso. The wider female pelvis is commonly attributed to obstetric pressures while the broader male pectoral girdle has been argued to be an adaptation that improves hunting or intrasexual competition. While sexual dimorphism in the pelvic girdle is known to exist after adjusting for body size across human populations, most studies of sexual dimorphism in the pectoral girdle have not adjusted the data to account for sexual size dimorphism or compared different ancestral groups. The aforementioned hypotheses explaining sexual dimorphism in the clavicle and scapula as products of natural selection are predicated on the untested assumption that sex differences do not scale with body size. This study tests this assumption by comparing various measurements of the pectoral girdle, the pelvic girdle, and six pectoral-pelvic indices of black and white South Africans of known sex and height to test whether the sexes and ancestral groups will differ in these values after adjusting for differences in body size. Comparisons of ancestral groups reveal that white South Africans have larger pectoral and pelvic dimensions than black South Africans, but that blacks have larger index values than whites. Regardless of differences in ancestry and body size, males have significantly broader pectoral regions as indicated by comparisons of both individual pectoral measurements and pectoral-pelvic indices. This pattern of sexual dimorphism is reversed in the pelvic region where females have larger skeletal elements. In addition to finding both absolute and relative differences in mean values for the pectoral and pelvic skeleton, females and males and blacks and whites differ in the scaling relationship of these traits, suggesting different allometric trajectories for these bones that may be explained by their distinct evolutionary functions, their adaptations to specific environments, or by changes in lengths due to age. These results suggest that sexual dimorphism in the pectoral region is not a product of scaling and that differences in this region reflect adaptive forces acting in unique ways on each sex, consistent with the assumptions of earlier evolutionary explanations.

As modern populations are living longer, age-related health issues have become more common. One growing concern is the age-related bone density loss that increases the individual's risk for fractures, which unfortunately seems to disproportionately afflict women. These fractures are not only detrimental to the individuals' lives but also come with a great economic burden to the societies. Although age-related bone loss is a normal phenomenon, studies on archaeological individuals have demonstrated that the pattern how this occurs has experienced changes due to our changing lifestyles. Hence, to add to our understanding of secular trends in age-related bone loss, we studied age- and sex-related differences in vertebral and femoral bone densities of a recent past population of late 19 and early 20 century Americans. We used a sample of 114 individuals (55 males, 59 females) from the Robert J. Terry Anatomical Skeletal Collection. Peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) was used to scan the dry bones. We took one scan from the 4 lumbar vertebra and three scans from the femur. The associations between the age, sex and bone density were analyzed. We were able to detect age-related bone loss in both vertebra and femur. It was observed that men tended to lose more bone density on the vertebra, whereas bone loss in women was more pronounced in the femur. We speculate that differences to modern and earlier archaeological populations are related to the major lifestyle differences between the periods.

With the implementation of the three-child policy in China, the debate between fertility and health and longevity has again become a hot topic in the era of increasing ageing. This study aimed to explore the association between reproductive behaviour and longevity of older women and men in China. Based on data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) from 2014 to 2018, a total of 1428 deceased older people were enrolled in the study, including 421 centenarians and 1007 non-centenarians. The analysis of the association between fertility and longevity was conducted in the multivariate logistic regression. Compared to women aged 99 years and below, centenarian women had significantly fewer children ( < 0.01), fewer sons ( < 0.01) and fewer daughters. Centenarian men had more children, more daughters and fewer sons. For both men and women, centenarians were significantly characterized by later age at first birth ( < 0.01) and later age at last birth ( < 0.01). Centenarians were significantly characterized by having children and having a daughter, however, non-centenarians were significantly characterized by having a son ( < 0.01). The association between fertility and health of both men and women should be taken into account in the development of fertility policies and supporting policies. Fertility levels should be increased without compromising the health benefits of individuals in their later years.

Five cranial nonmetric traits for sex estimation for sex estimation are classified by score according to geometry. The population of origin is one of the factors influencing cranial nonmetric traits. Moreover, among the five cranial traits, the robust traits for estimating sex varied across population. The aim of this study is to suggest the most useful method for sex estimation and demonstrate the need of a suitable method for each population. One-hundred thirty-five three-dimensional skull images from 21 century Korean autopsy cadavers were evaluated using the ordinal scoring system of five cranial nonmetric traits as outlined in Buikstra & Ubelaker (1994). All scores of each trait were analyzed by linear discriminant and decision tree analyses for sex estimation. The frequency of each trait was analyzed and compared to populations from other studies. The accuracy for both sexes was 88.1% by discriminant analysis and 90.4% by decision tree. The traits with the highest accuracy were the glabella and mastoid process in both discriminant analysis and decision tree. Sex estimation in modern Korean cadavers using the cranial nonmetric method was shown to be highly accurate by both discriminant analysis and decision tree. When comparing the pattern of frequency scores in this study with those of other populations, the pattern of trait scores for estimating sex was different for each population, even among populations in the same Asian region, which suggests the need for methods suited for specific populations.

In 1996, Grün and coworkers provided an ESR age determination for a hominin molar from Florisbad, South Africa, at 259 ± 35 ka. The most anatomically informative hominin specimen from Florisbad is a fragmentary craniofacial specimen, attributed by many to early , which has been assumed to derive from the same individual as this tooth. Since 1996, evidence about the evolutionary context for the later Middle Pleistocene and its associated hominins in Africa had markedly changed. If the Florisbad date is accurate and if the molar is associated with the craniofacial specimen, this evidence may suggest that coexisted in time and geography with in southern Africa. Thus, the accuracy for all dates needs critical investigation. This study examines the published record of excavation and subsequent analyses for the Florisbad material. We find that the contemporary records raise doubt about the contemporaneity of the tooth and calvaria. The site's complex stratigraphy and the details about the tooth's discovery also pose challenges for the previous ESR age estimate. Because the fragmentary cranial specimen has value for morphological comparisons, developing additional means of understanding its geological age is necessary. The current data do not demonstrate the presence of in southern Africa at ~260 ka.

The Medieval-Post-Medieval transition in England was an important shift in the human biocultural environment. With urbanization and industrialization came resultant changes in living and working conditions and subsequent effects on the skeleton. In addition, the Post-Medieval period ushered in changes in footwear and activity patterns, with potential consequences on foot bone morphology. The objective of this study is to compare calcaneal and talar lengths between the Medieval and Post-Medieval periods to determine whether there are quantifiable differences that correspond to shifting footwear and activity patterns. T-tests and ANCOVAs (and their non-parametric equivalents) were used to compare calcaneal and talar lengths of 1086 adults from 14 London cemeteries (Medieval n = 8, Post-Medieval n = 6), available in the Oracle Wellcome Osteological Research Database (WORD) curated by the Museum of London. Males and females were also analyzed separately. In the total sample, tali and calcanei are longer in the Medieval period ( < 0.001 for both tarsals). When males and females are analyzed separately, male talar length is greater in the Post-Medieval period ( < 0.001). The difference in talar length between periods is not statistically significant for females ( = 0.093). These differences in talar and calcaneal lengths between periods likely reflect differences in footwear between the Medieval and Post-Medieval periods. The magnitude of these differences varies according to sex, indicating that the change in footwear had differential impacts on men and women. Together, these results suggest that Medieval and Post-Medieval tarsals physically incorporated their respective cultural environments and gendered differences in cultural practice, particularly related to the footwear characteristic of each period.

The paper presents the skeletal remains of an adult male of 30-40 years with bone lesions and deformity on the left hip, recovered during the archaeological excavation below the former Basilica of San Dionigi, dated to Late Antiquity (3 - 5 century AD) Milan. Biological profile and paleopathological analysis were performed following standard references and the bones underwent radiological examination. Differential diagnosis included congenital anomaly, active rickets, infectious diseases, femoral neck trauma, Legg-Carvé-Perthes disease, Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis (SFCE), osteogenesis imperfecta and osteoporosis. While the lesions were highly consistent with Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease, they were typical of SFCE, complicated by an avascular necrosis and secondary osteoarthrosis. The alteration of the femoral head led to a 7.8% leg-length discrepancy, causing gait alteration with partial compensation though increased muscular activity on the right leg, reduced mobility of the joint and potentially hip pain, difficulty in walking and running and even limping. This paper explores a case of physical disability from the Roman era found near a Christian place of worship and represents a rare case of SFCE in the paleopathological record.

This paper presents the changes caused by macroabrasion of teeth on skeletal remains found in tomb No 4 in the west necropolis of the archeological site Kopila near Blato on the island of Korčula. The site archeologically dates back to the Late Iron Age, when the island was inhabited by the Illyrians. The aim of this study was to assess the dental age of the buried individuals at death and determine the type of their diet, which could give us a preliminary insight into the socio-economic standard of the inhabitants of the settlement. The analyzed sample is part of the collection of excavated skeletal remains kept in the Vela Luka Cultural Center on the island of Korčula. 284 permanent teeth, 19 fragments of the maxilla and 20 fragments of the mandible were found in the tomb, which were classified into 32 individuals and by sex. Teeth were analyzed by metric and non-metric methods of determining dental status in order to assess the dental age at the time of death and the diet of the inhabitants. The dental age of individuals was determined by the Lovejoy method and the degree of tooth wear by the Smith-Knight method. The analysis of the stable isotope C determined the exact time of death of the analyzed individuals. The tooth wear changes were very pronounced and present on 92.9% of teeth, equally on incisors and molars ( = 0.236). There is no significant gender difference ( > 0.05 for all teeth and jaw parts). There was no difference in the degree of tooth wear of the teeth of the mandible and maxilla (t = -0.266, = 0.791), nor in the degree of tooth wear of the teeth of the maxilla right and left (t = -0.392, = 0.702) or in the degree of tooth wear of the teeth of the mandible right and left (t = -0.889, = 0.390). The average age of the analyzed population sample was 35.6 (±3.1) years. They were buried between 360-40 BC. Tooth wear changes observed on the analyzed teeth indicate a diet rich in hard, weakly cariogenic food with particles that were probably of inorganic origin, which caused an increased wear of tooth structures. The population was sedentary, agricultural type and the life expectancy was normal for the Late Iron Age. Besides, their socio-economic status was good. The age at the time of their death was between 30 and 40 years. Further studies should include more accurate and standardized methods for assessing the condition.

Sex determination is one of the first biological attribute to be assessed when unidentified remains surface. In material of forensic interest, being able to use every skeletal element available for identification purposes is of paramount importance. The osteometric method from the sternal rib end has been found to generate accurate sex estimates, but as various studies have proved, all osteometric methods should be population-specific, as one equation does not fit all. The aim of this study is to assess sexual dimorphism in a contemporary Greek population sample of 68 males and 43 females, with the use of discriminant function analysis. The superior-inferior height (SIH) and anterior-posterior breadth (APB) from the third to fifth sternal rib ends of both sides were taken from 3D models created with the use of a hand-held 3D scanner. The results demonstrated that SIH is more sexually dimorphic than APB (alpha value of .05) while the application of İşcan's (1985) formula on the contemporary Greek sample, provided results of low accuracy, ranging from 48.6-52.4%. The cross-validated discriminant functions equations for the current sample, produced results ranging between 74.0-82.9% indicating that population-specific formulas produce results of higher accuracy, that are vital in cases of forensic interest.

There are indications that the occurrence of metabolic diseases in children may be conditioned by factors experienced already in the utero. The aim of this systematic review was to analyze the studies that examined the effects of stress experienced by a pregnant woman on the child's adiposity rates in postnatal life. The review includes 20 articles published before March 2020 in Scopus and Medline databases with the use of following keyword combinations: /maternal or mother/, /prenatal or pregnant/, /stress or distress/ and /BMI, body mass index or overweight or obesity or body composition/. The results of the research were inconsistent. Nevertheless, most articles confirmed the positive association of prenatal stress with fatness indicators in children. The review raised a question of the role of the methods applied for stress measurement (objective vs. subjective indicators) and adiposity assessment, as well as the time of prenatal exposition to stress. Most studies have proved that prenatal stress is related to the children adiposity in postnatal life.

Dental macrowear is the non-pathological loss of hard tissues on the occlusal surface of the teeth. In archaeological contexts, the loss of tooth tissues is often correlated with lifestyles, habits, and with the physical properties of the consumed food - including preparation techniques. We report the first semiquantitative and quantitative assessment on dentine exposure of permanent second molars (M2) using the scale scoring technique, image analysis, and regression analysis on human teeth from Chalcolithic and Bronze Age archaeological populations discovered in North-Eastern Romania. We show an increase of dentine exposure percent (PDE) with the age-ranges, but no evidence of wear by sex were observed. In the linear regression analysis, the age and the dentine exposure percent, as variables, were correlated in 31% of the mandibular M2 molars and 49% in the maxillary ones ( < 0.001). Moreover, the multiple regression analysis involving the dentine exposure and the three variables that could influence the dental wear (i.e., age, occlusal area, and period) revealed no differences in dental wear between Chalcolithic and Bronze Age, as well as between different cultures of Bronze Age (i.e., Monteoru Culture and Noua Culture). Therefore, apart from age, occlusal area, and period, there may be other factors including diet and food-processing techniques that could be also considered when discussing the loss of tooth tissues in archaeological populations, especially farmers.

Taurodontism is a continuous anatomical variation of permanent and primary posterior teeth represented by an enlargement of the pulp cavity. A high prevalence of the trait is reported in remains. Exploring and refining epidemiology of taurodontism in actual populations could strengthen the hypothesis of a selective advantage for a high attrition diet (as heavy tooth wear in evolution changed little until recently) or favour pleiotropic or genetic drift effects to explain the high frequency of the trait in Neandertal remains. Prevalence ranges between 0.1% and 48% in the literature. The aim of the present study is to assess the prevalence of taurodontism in recent populations by means of meta-analysis, that is, is the prevalence of taurodontism lower or higher in modern human living populations, where the selective advantages of high attrition diet are still expected? From 90 potentially eligible studies, 15 were included in the meta-analysis. Only cross-sectional studies were reported, and 14,771 participants were included. The meta-analyses were performed with a random model, calculating a weighted-mean prevalence of 11.8%. Gender was found to be unrelated to the prevalence of taurodontism (OR = 0.84 (95% CI 0.67-1.05), > 0.05). Taurodontism occurs in approximately 11.8% of the living population. This result questions the status of taurodontism as a "typical trait" in and allows a possible common evolutionary mechanism in and for the trait. Further studies should include more accurate and standardized methods to assess the condition.

Qafzeh 9 is an almost complete skeleton commonly employed as representative of the population of the eponymous site. However, its biological profile is still largely based on the age at death and sex estimation methods in use at the time of its discovery. Moreover, post-mortem damage to the skeleton has made difficult the observation of some morphoscopic features, particularly pelvic ones currently used in sex estimation. Here, we apply recent methods and paleoimaging to re-evaluate the biological profile of Qafzeh 9, taking into account post-mortem damage. The results suggest a young age at death, indicating that Qafzeh 9 died before reaching complete dental and bone maturity; they also support a male sex assignment.

Commingled human remains were discovered in TT110 (Djehuty tomb; Dynasty XVIII), located in El Sheikh Abd el Qurna, Luxor, Egypt. The tomb had been reused over a long period of time (1570-332 BCE). In a small area distinct from the comingled remains, an incomplete skull and two fragments, consistent with that of a young adult female, between 25 and 40 years of age were found. A detailed macroscopic and radiologic analysis was performed at the tomb site. The three bone fragments showed abundant small to medium sized osteolytic lesions compatible with a diagnosis of late stage metastatic carcinoma or, less likely, multiple myeloma. The age and sex of the individual favors the possibility of breast cancer as the primary making this one of the oldest cases of metastases reported from ancient Egypt.

Morphometric data is inherently linked to size; however, there is no consensus for how to account for this. Some researchers adjust for size, whereas others do not, which can affect the results of a study. This study examines this problem using sexual dimorphism of the pelvis. Twenty-two pelvic measures were collected from 119 individuals from the Hamann-Todd Collection. Measures included dimensions of the false pelvis and the pelvic canal. After all the data was collected, it was compiled into 3 data sets; the first set included unadjusted data, the second set was adjusted for body size, and the third set was adjusted for pelvic size. After all adjustments, independent sample t-tests were run on each data set, to determine which measures appeared dimorphic. In each case, the measures that appeared to be sexually dimorphic differed. According to the t-test for the unadjusted data, four of the 22 measures were not dimorphic: anterior spaces of the midplane and the outlet, sacral breadth, and length of the superior pubic ramus. Using the data adjusted for body size, all pelvic measures were dimorphic. Lastly, using the data adjusted for pelvic size, five measures were not dimorphic: anterior space and transverse diameter of the inlet, inter-acetabular distance, length of the superior pubic ramus, and circumference of the inlet. These conflicting results demonstrate the intricate nature of correcting for size and the challenge comparing results across studies. Overall pelvic-size dimorphism and body-size dimorphism must be considered.

This study tests the hypothesis that the incorporation of cultigens about ca. 2000 years BP substantially changed hunter-gatherer subsistence and mobility in the Atuel River valley (Central-Western Argentina), where the frontier of pre-Hispanic domesticated resource dispersion was defined. Degenerative joint disease and entheseal change markers were analyzed on skeletal remains from Cañada Seca-1, a burial archaeological site with commingled skeletal remains dated about . 1500 years BP (MNI = 24). The results show lower mobility in comparison with hunter-gatherer remains from the neighboring Pampa region and quite different manual activities compared to low-level producers. These trends are explained as a result of a mixed subsistence strategy and mobility in an area where the incorporation of domesticated plants was neither a linear nor a fast process, and a stereotypical view proves to be insufficient to understand it. Although further information is required for future discussions, the present research highlights the potential of commingled skeletal remains for this kind of study.