Validación de datos antropométricos antiguos con error inter-observador

Abstract

Anthropometric data on ancient series of males not based on recruits' heights are scarce in Spain. For this, it is of interest the recovery of individualized and unpublished information corresponding to university students of ends of the 19th century and beginning of the XXth elaborated by multiple observers. The information comes from a collection of 1228 anthropometric cards dated between the years 1893 and 1920, which were completed in the Laboratory of Anthropology of the Museum of Natural Sciences of Madrid. Wrong measurements were identified and minimized by comparing two or more variables, which made possible to reject as lost cases the most evident mistakes. In addition, values apart 3 standard deviations from the average were considered as missing. The corrected data show very limited variations in the parameters of position and dispersion with regard to the original file for height, being slightly larger for the biacromial and bicrestal diameters. The stature in the selected series fit a normal distribution, but biacromial and bicristal values apart significantly.