Discriminant Function Analysis of Foramen Magnum Variables in South Indian Population

Introduction: The foramen magnum is a fundamental component in the interaction of bony, ligamentous and muscular structures composing the craniovertebral junction. All the variables were evaluated by using multivariate discriminant function analysis. This multivariate analysis is concerned with problem of assigning the individual values to a particular group, which depends on the summation of number of variable characteristics of an individual, giving equal weightage to all the characters.

Methods: The study sample comprised of 200 skull bones (105 males and 95 females) of south Indian origin. Multivariate discriminant function analysis was employed to analyze sex differences between the skull bones. The principle behind multivariate linear discriminant function is that sex is a dependent variable and measured variables are independent variables.

Results: It was noticed that out of 105, 95 male skull bones were sexed correctly and out of 95, 84 female skull bones were sexed correctly. Out of 200 skull bones, 179 skull bones were sexed correctly. So the percentage of skull bones which were sexed correctly for male was 90% and for female, it was 88%. With all the variables in consideration, overall 90% of skull bones were sexed correctly.

Conclusion: When the results of routine statistical methods and multivariate analysis were compared, it was clear that multivariate analysis was much better both in reliability and accuracy. Therefore, the multivariate analysis is the best method for determination of sex of skull bones with available resources.