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. 2020 Dec 30;38(3):2-7.

Child brides: the age estimation problem in young girls

R Cameriere  1 , L A Velandia Palacio  1 , M Marchetti  2 , F Baralla  2 , M Cingolani  3 , L Ferrante  4
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Child brides: the age estimation problem in young girls

R Cameriere et al. J Forensic Odontostomatol. .

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study a sample of girls from 15 different countries using Third Molar Maturity Index (I3M ), to assess the probability that a girl has reached the legal age of 18 years. The studied sample consisted of 3228 Orthopantomograms of healthy female subjects from 15 different countries. The cut-off value of I3M = 0.08 was tested to discriminate adults (≥18 years) and minors (<18 years). X-ray images were processed by computer-aided drafting program ImageJ. The information on sensitivity and specificity of I3M coming from the 15 countries was pooled together using a bivariate Bayesian modeling approach. Specificity of the I3M test did not change when the country was considered, and its value remains greater than 85% for each studied country. This method is useful to estimate the age of the girls involved in suspected early marriage because of the high probability of correctly identifying a minor with similar results observed among tested populations.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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