A multivariate analysis to propose linear models for the stature estimation in the Sabahan young adult population.

BACKGROUND: Stature is one of the significant parameters to confirm a biological profile besides sex, age, and ancestry. Sabah is in the Eastern part of Malaysia and is populated by multi-ethnic groups. To date, limited studies on stature estimation have been conducted in Sabah. Hence, this study aims to construct population-specific stature estimation equations for the large ethnic groups in Sabah, Malaysia.
OBJECTIVE: The aim is to propose linear models using different hand dimensions (hand span, handbreadth, hand length, middle finger length, and the second inter-crease in the middle finger) for the young adult male and females of the major ethnic groups in Sabah. MATERIALS &
METHODS: This cross-sectional study framework used stratified random sampling on 184 male and 184 female young adults. An unpaired t-test and a one-way ANOVA were used to assess the differences in the mean between sex and ethnicities, respectively. The link between the response variable and explanatory variables was initially investigated using simple linear regression, followed by multiple linear regression. RESULT: The present study demonstrated the highest association for the quantitative explanatory variables among hand length and stature (right side: r = 0.833; left side: r = 0.842). Simple equations were specifically developed without sex indicators, and ethnic and multiple linear regression was developed with sex and ethnic indicators. Multiple linear regression provided good estimation r2 = 0.7886 and adjusted r2 = 0.7853. The stature of 18 to 25 year old large ethnic groups in Sabah can be estimated using the developed models 90.218 + 3.845 LHL -5.950 Sex-2.308 Bajau -1.673 KadazanDusun + 2.676 L2ICL. While, formula for each ethnic and sex KadazanDusun Male: Stature = 88.545 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL, KadazanDusun Female: Stature = 82.595 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL, Bajau Male: Stature = 87.910 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL, Bajau Female: Stature = 81.960 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL, Malay Male: Stature = 90.218 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL, Malay Female: Stature = 84.268 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL, Chinese Male: Stature = 90.218 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL, and Chinese Female: Stature = 84.268 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL.
CONCLUSION: The study reports anthropometric data and formulas for measuring the stature of major ethnic groups in Sabah, which can be used to compare future work.

Introduction

Stature is one of the significant parameters to confirm a biological profile besides sex, age, and ancestry [1]. Stature is vital for nutrition and health in the calculation of body mass index (BMI) [2]. In numerous low- and middle-income countries, the substantial prevalence of short adult stature represents the nutrition net impact through time and across generations and the involvement of diseases and other related environmental variables, such as socioeconomic position [3]. Height prediction is essential in spine and limb deformities, surgical procedures or trauma, skeletal dysplasia, and measuring stature age-related loss [4]. Stature is considered one of the unique critical parameters for personal identification essential in forensic medicine cases [5].

Many studies using mathematical equations demonstrated that stature is estimated from other body parts [6, 7]. In an ongoing investigation, stature estimation can aid in narrowing down the potential victims in scenarios of person identification from the remains in forensic investigation processes, thus providing valuable clues for the investigating authorities to identify the suspects accurately [8].

Different studies adopted different approaches to estimate stature, such as from the lower limbs [9, 10], upper limbs [11-13], and head [14, 15]. Although foot length is very reliable for stature estimation [16], if the body parts are damaged or lost, and there are no feet attached, the stature estimation from the hand will be helpful. Studies on hand measurement are reliable in estimating stature [1, 11], and the right-hand length is the most reliable among these hand measurements [1].

Previous work developed a mathematical equation from regression analysis to determine stature from the hand [1, 13] and the hand and foot [16, 17]. Multiple regression analysis is better to find the stature from the foot breadth and length, as standard error of estimate (SEE) and coefficient values of determination were better than those in a simple linear regression equation [16]. Similarly, the multiple regression equation was preferred, as it had low values of SEE for upper limb stature estimation [1].

Ethnic variations in the population, nutrition, genetics, sex, environment, age, and physical activity, impact the stature [3, 7, 18–21]. Therefore, the formula designed for a particular population might not fit for others. The different populations studied the estimation of the stature from other regions such as Australia [22], Korea [16], Bangladesh [13], and East Malaysia [11]. Sabah is in the Eastern part of Malaysia and is populated by multi-ethnic groups. Sabah has over fifty main ethnic groups with their own languages. Among these ethnicities KadazanDusun speaking ethnicities are the largest followed by Bajau, Malay and other ethnic groups. Among the non-indigenous groups, the Chinese are majority. The origin of the Malay and Chinese populations of this study is different from the West Malaysia. The Sabahan Malays are mostly of Bruneian and Kadayan origin [23] while in peninsular Malaysia, Malay subethnic groups are Melayu Kelantan, Melayu Minang, Melayu Jawa, and Melayu Bugis [24]. The Hakkas are the majority in Sabah among the Chinese population on top of few Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hainanese, and Shantung [23], whereas, in West Malaysia, Hokkien, Cantonese, Foochows, and other groups are prominent [25]. Until now, limited studies on stature estimation addressing the ethnic variation have been conducted in Sabah. Hence, this study aims to propose population-specific stature estimation equations for major ethnic groups in Sabah, Malaysia.

Materials and methods

This study adopted a cross-sectional approach and was performed from February 2021 to January 2022. The study was designed to propose linear models using different hand dimensions (hand span, breadth, and length, as well as the middle finger and second inter-crease of the middle finger length) for the young adult male and female population of the large ethnic groups in Sabah.

Study population

This study comprised four ethnic groups: Malay, Chinese, KadazanDusun, and Bajau. To fulfill the inclusion criteria, subjects’ parents and grandparents must be from the same ethnic groups. The KadazanDusun and Malay ethnic groups are most abundant in Tuaran, Tamparuli, Ranau, and Papar districts, whereas the Bajau in Kota Belud, Tuaran, and Semporna, and the Chinese in the Kudat district. The standard operating procedure for preventing the Covid-19 pandemic spread did not permit collecting data at the community level. Alternatively, the study was carried out among university students from the districts mentioned above who completed their Covid-19 vaccination.

Inclusion criteria

The qualified participants considered for this study satisfied the following key criteria:

The minimum age was 18, and the maximum was 25 years.

They stay at the university campus.

They are Malay (Bruneian), Chinese Bajau, or KadazanDusun.

Individuals with Parkinsonism, rheumatoid arthritis, or other medical conditions that can impact hand anthropometry.

Individuals having parents or grandparents who were not from the same ethnic group.

Data collection

The respondents obtained informed consent after explaining the study’s design, objectives, and methodology. The researcher used a stadiometer to measure the heights of the respondents and an INSIZE (0-200mm x 0.01mm 1108–200) digital caliper to measure the hand dimensions. The values were reported in centimeters. The measurement was taken two times, and the overall average was reported. The measurement was taken in the fixed period of 10 am to 12 pm to avoid the possible diurnal variation.

Sample size

The minimum sample size recommended by the researcher was 25 participants for each stratum [26]. Predicting a response rate of about 50% from prior research in acquiring participants from the same target population, the researchers added 50 individuals for each stratum. A total of 368 participants acted as the target population in this study, amounting to 46 participants for each stratum [46x4 (ethnicity) x2 (sex)].

Sampling of the subjects

Student Affairs Department (BPA) provided a list of 18 to 25-year-old students of Malay, Chinese, KadazanDusun, and Bajau ethnic groups. The students were segregated according to four ethnic groups and were further divided into the male and female categories. Fifty subjects were chosen randomly from every stratum until the required sample size was met.

Stature measurement

Standing height was measured using a stationary stadiometer with an upright backboard and a movable headboard. After removing the footwear, subjects stood together on the stadiometer’s platform with their heels. The arms hung at the sides, with the palms facing the thighs and the gaze directed straight forward. The back was as straight as possible, so the heels, glutes, shoulders, and head all contacted the instrument’s vertical section. The subject’s head was aligned with the horizontal Frankfort plane. Along the midsagittal plane, the head plates of the stadiometer were put into solid contact with the vertex. After instructing the participant to breathe deeply and retain their breath, readings to the closest 0.1 cm [27] were collected.

Measurement of hand dimensions

Hand length

The distance from the midpoint of the distal wrist crease to the most distal point of the middle finger was measured as the hand’s length [28].

Handbreadth

The distance from the lateral surface of the second metacarpal and the medial surface of the fifth at the knuckles was measured as the handbreadth. [21].

Middle finger length

The middle finger length was considered to be from the proximal finger crease of the middle finger to its tip [29].

Second inter-crease length of the middle finger

The middle phalanx was determined as the distance from the distal interphalangeal joint crease to the proximal interphalangeal joint crease [30].

Handspan

The linear distance between the thumb’s tip and the small finger’s tip in the hand spread wide was considered the handspan [31].

All the dimensions were measured in cm.

Statistical analysis

The mean scores were utilized to define the height and hand dimensions as the data had a normal distribution. An unpaired t-test and a one-way ANOVA were used to assess the differences in the mean between sexes and ethnicities, respectively. The link between the response variable and explanatory variables was initially investigated using simple linear regression, followed by multiple linear regression. Pearson’s correlation test investigated the multicollinearity of the variables. R-squared, adjusted R-squared, and estimated standard errors were used to assess the goodness-of-fit of various models. The statistical analysis software applications employed were IBM SPSS Statistics 28 and StatCrunch. The significance threshold used was α = 0.05.

Ethics statement

The study received ethical approval from the Medical Research Ethics Committee. UMS. The committee’s reference number is JKEtika 5/20(7). Written informed consent was obtained from all the participants before data collection.

Results

The measured statures of the participants are normally distributed (Fig 1). The mean and standard deviation of the participants’ statures were distributed among the Malay, Chinese, KadazanDusun, and Bajau populations in Sabah, which were further subdivided by sex (Table 1).

Fig 1

Q-Q plot with correlation with normal quantile and boxplot of stature.

Table 1

Stature of the respondents based on sex and ethnicity (n = 368).

Ethnicity	Sex	Stature
		Mean	SD
KadazanDusun	Male	167.24	5.18
	Female	153.45	5.32
Bajau	Male	163.72	6.16
	Female	153.70	6.17
Malay	Male	169.48	5.58
	Female	156.15	5.77
Chinese	Male	169.22	4.58
	Female	158.66	5.98

From the distribution among the sexes in each ethnic group, male participants had higher stature than female participants (Table 1). An independent sample t-test was performed to investigate the statistical significance of the observed difference. The participants’ inclusion in the study was random, and independent observations were made. Each group contained over 30 participants, which is not over 5% of the target population. Hence, the assumptions for the t-test were fulfilled [32].

Based on this, the following hypothesis was formulated:

H0: There is no difference in stature between the male and female participants.

H1: Male participants’ stature was higher than female participants.

The null hypothesis for the test was rejected, as the p-value (<0.001) for the t-statistics in terms of the difference of mean values for stature was less than the significance level, α = 0.05 (Table 2). Therefore, the result demonstrates that male participants had a higher stature than females.

Table 2

Difference between stature and hand dimensions among sex (n = 368).

	Mean Difference	Standard error	t	df	p-value	95% CI of the Difference
						Lower	Upper
Stature	11.92	0.62	19.096	367	<0.001	10.70	13.15

The one-way AONVA test assessed the apparent difference in mean scores of statures for the ethnicities (Table 1) to test the following hypothesis:

H0: There is no difference in stature among the Malay, Chinese, Bajau, and KadazanDusun participants.

H1: At least one ethnic group of participants has different stature than others.

The normal probability plots with the correlation between the score and the Z-score for every ethnic group are illustrated in Fig 2. The correlations are greater than the critical value (0.960), so each data set stems from a normally distributed population [33].

Fig 2

Q-Q plot for correlation of observations of various ethnicities with z-scores.

The one-way ANOVA test has another assumption that each stratum must have a similar variance [32]. The standard deviations for each group were compared. The highest standard deviation, 6.17, was less than twice the lowest, 4.58 (4.58x2 = 9.16 > 6.17). So, the need for equal population variance values was achieved [32].

Table 3 demonstrates that p-values (<0.001) for the difference in male and female statures of major ethnic groups are lower than the significance level (α = 0.05). Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected. There is enough proof to point out that the stature of at least one of the groups differs from the others. Therefore, the post hoc multiple comparisons test was required to investigate in which pair the difference exists. Tukey’s post hoc honestly significant difference (i.e., HSD) assessment was conducted, as the data satisfied the assumption of the homogeneity of the variance values.

Table 3

ANOVA results.

		Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square value	F	Sig.
Male	Among Groups	974.664	3	324.888	11.170	< .001
	Within Groups	5235.655	180	29.087
	Total	6210.319	183
Female	Between Groups	822.180	3	274.060	8.091	< .001
	Within Groups	6097.327	180	33.874
	Total	6919.506	183

The p-values in Table 4 indicate a significant difference in the stature of Bajau males and KadazanDusun (p<0.05), Malay (p<0.001), and Chinese (p<0.001) males, where Bajau males’ average stature was the lower than all these ethnicities. Again, Chinese females were significantly (p<0.001) taller than KadazanDusun and Bajau females.

Table 4

Difference of stature in different ethnicities among the respondents (n = 368).

	I -Ethnicity	J—Ethnicity	Mean Difference score (I-J)	Standard Error	p-value	95% Confidence interval
						Lower	Upper
Male	KadazanDusun	Bajau	3.52	1.12	0.011	0.60	6.43
		Malay	-2.24	1.12	0.195	-5.16	0.68
		Chinese	-1.98	1.12	0.294	-4.90	0.93
	Bajau	Malay	-5.76	1.12	<0.001	-8.67	-2.84
		Chinese	-5.50	1.12	<0.001	-8.42	-2.58
	Malay	Chinese	0.26	1.12	0.996	-2.66	3.17
Female	KadazanDusun	Bajau	-0.25	1.21	0.997	-3.40	2.89
		Malay	-2.70	1.21	0.120	-5.85	0.44
		Chinese	-5.22	1.21	<0.001	-8.36	-2.07
	Bajau	Malay	-2.45	1.21	0.185	-5.60	0.70
		Chinese	-4.96	1.21	<0.001	-8.11	-1.81
	Malay	Chinese	-2.51	1.21	0.167	-5.66	0.64

At first, the relation between hand dimensions and stature was evaluated by a linear regression model, and after that, a multiple linear regression. The assumption of random selection for linear regression was achieved, as the subjects were selected through a stratified random sampling approach. Another assumption for the linear regression model is that there should be a linear relationship between the response variable (i.e., stature) and the explanatory variable (i.e., individual hand dimensions). The residual distribution of every parameter was derived to determine the linear relation. The correlation values were also computed, as shown in Fig 3. All the residual values showed a reasonably linear relation with the Z-score. The correlation values among the residuals and the hand dimensions were all over the critical value (0.960) [33]. Therefore, we can say that, for every hand dimension, the stature was normally distributed.

Fig 3

The null hypothesis was rejected, as the p-value (<0.001) for the slope was lower than the significance level α = 0.05 (Table 5). There is sufficient evidence proof to point out that a linear relation exists for hand span, length, breadth, middle finger length, second inter-crease middle finger length, and stature.

Table 5

Constants, coefficients, and relationships of upper limb dimensions with stature (n = 463).

Variable	Intercept (β0)	Slope (βi)	Correlation Coefficient (r)
RHL	50.402	6.260	0.833*
LHL	49.263	6.327	0.842*
RHB	83.124	9.894	0.727*
LHB	84.494	9.786	0.713*
RHS	114.765	9.894	0.568*
LHS	115.298	2.794	0.552*
RMFL	67.758	12.267	0.752*
LMFL	71.124	11.829	0.753*
R2ICL	105.840	21.252	0.570*
L2ICL	102.346	22.503	0.610*

RHL = Right hand length, LHL = Left hand length, RHB = Right handbreadth, LHB = Left handbreadth, RMFL = Right middle finger length, LMFL = Left middle finger length, R2ICL = Right second inter-crease length, L2ICL = Left second inter-crease length, RHS = Right hand span, LHS = Left hand span

*Relationship is significant at p<0.0001 level.

The F-statistics values are under p<0.05, and according to Fig 4, no discernible pattern in the residual plots and no outlier in the boxplot (Fig 5) indicate the suitability of the model (Table 6).

Fig 4

Scatter plot of the explanatory variables (hand dimensions) with response variables (stature) and residuals against each explanatory variable.

Fig 5

Boxplot of the residuals against each explanatory variable.

Table 6

Goodness-of-fit measure.

Response variable	Model	R2	S.E.E.	F
Stature	50.402 + RHLx6.260	0.6944	4.09	734.04*
	49.263 + LHLx6.327	0.7098	3.98	789.93*
	83.124 + RHBx9.894	0.5282	4.11	361.62*
	84.494 + LHBx9.786	0.5087	4.19	334.57*
	114.765 + RHS x 2.833	0.3227	3.74	153.87*
	115.298 + LHS x 2.794	0.3045	3.86	141.38*
	67.758 + RMFLx12.267	0.5662	4.55	421.59*
	71.124 + LMFL x 11.829	0.5672	4.38	423.24*
	105.840 + R2ICLx21.252	0.3255	4.43	155.85*
	102.346 + L2ICLx22.503	0.3721	4.25	191.39*

SEE = Standard error of estimate

Significance at the P<0.001 level

Multiple linear regression requires normally distributed residuals and avoiding multicollinearity between the explanatory variables. The test also requires no outliers in the residuals to draw inferences from the multiple regression findings [33]. A correlation test examined the collinearity among the explanatory variables, as shown in the correlogram (Table 7).

Table 7

Correlation between response and explanatory variables (n-368).

	Stature	RHL	LHL	RHB	LHB	RMFL	LMFL	R2ICL	L2ICL	RHS
RHL	0.777
LHL	0.785	0.988
RHB	0.610	0.769	0.774
LHB	0.620	0.766	0.780	0.962
RMFL	0.695	0.901	0.893	0.676	0.676
LMFL	0.707	0.897	0.907	0.692	0.693	0.962
R2ICL	0.520	0.677	0.678	0.432	0.461	0.768	0.758
L2ICL	0.539	0.700	0.710	0.460	0.478	0.765	0.775	0.902
RHS	0.525	0.610	0.617	0.627	0.648	0.556	0.568	0.371	0.358
LHS	0.494	0.603	0.619	0.604	0.616	0.552	0.579	0.363	0.376	0.877

RHL = Right hand length, LHL = Left hand length, RHB = Right handbreadth, LHB = Left handbreadth, RMFL = Right middle finger length, LMFL = Left middle finger length, R2ICL = Right second inter-crease length, L2ICL = Left second inter-crease length, RHS = Right hand span, LHS = Left hand span

All correlations were significant at p<0.01 level.

The LHL had a high correlation with RHL and LMFL, whereas LHL had a higher correlation with stature than RHL and LMFL (Fig 6). RHL and LMFL were removed from the model to avoid multicollinearity. The multiple regression tested the following hypothesis.

Fig 6

Scatter plot of stature residuals with predicted stature, sex, Bajau ethnicity, KadazanDusun ethnicity, LHL & R2ICLand boxplot for residuals.

H0: There is no relation between LHL, LHB, LHS, L2ICL, RHB, RMFL, R2ICL, RHS, sex, ethnicity, and stature (βn = 0).

H1: A linear relation exists among hand dimensions, ethnicity, sex and stature (At least one βi≠0).

The normality of the residuals assumptions, equal variance distribution, and unavailability of any outliers act as a pre-requisite for concluding the findings (Fig 6). Also, the null hypothesis was rejected, as the slope p-values under the significance level (Tables 8 and 9).

Table 8

The forward selection process in multiple regression analysis.

Step	Variable	P-value	RMSE	R2	Adj. R2
1	LHL	<0.0001	4.222	0.7098	0.7089
2	Sex	<0.0001	3.763	0.7702	0.7687
3	Bajau	0.0004	3.696	0.779	0.7769
4	KadazanDusun	0.001	3.640	0.7863	0.7837
5	L2ICL	0.062	3.626	0.7886	0.7853

Table 9

Estimates and intercepts of the multiple linear regression model.

Parameter	Estimate	Std. Err.	DF	T-Stat	P-value
Intercept	91.037	5.1715143	318	17.603641	<0.0001
LHL	3.777	0.37644735	318	10.032945	<0.0001
Sex	-5.982	0.58144257	318	-10.288616	<0.0001
Bajau	-2.752	0.57774816	318	-4.7628927	<0.0001
KadazanDusun	-2.118	0.56698831	318	-3.7361531	0.0002
L2ICL	2.999	1.4405092	318	2.0817405	0.0382

The F-statistics values are under p<0.05, and according to Fig 4, no discernible pattern in any of the residual plots and no outlier in the boxplot indicate the suitability of the model (Table 10).

Table 10

Goodness-of-fit measure for multiple linear regression model.

Response Variable	Model	R2	Adj. R2	F	p-value
Stature	90.218 + 3.845 LHL -5.950 Sex—2.308 Bajau -1.673 KadazanDusun + 2.676 L2ICL	0.7886	0.7853	238.063	<0.0001

If we place the code values for sex (male = 0; female = 1), Bajau (Bajau = 1, Others = 0) and KadazanDusun (KadazanDusun = 1, Others = 0) we obtain the following:

KadazanDusun Male: Stature = 88.545 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL

KadazanDusun Female: Stature = 82.595 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL

Bajau Male: Stature = 87.910 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL

Bajau Female: Stature = 81.960 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL

Malay Male: Stature = 90.218 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL

Malay Female: Stature = 84.268 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL

Chinese Male: Stature = 90.218 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL

Chinese Female: Stature = 84.268 + 3.845 LHL+ 2.676 L2ICL

Discussion

The present study conducted a multivariate analysis to propose linear models for stature estimation of the young adult population in Sabah. Adopting multivariate analysis attempted to clarify the statistical analysis level. The researchers chose the participants using a stratified random sampling method for four large ethnic groups in Sabah: Malay, Chinese, KadazanDusun, and Bajau. There was an equal number of females and males for each ethnic group. After randomization, it was ensured that the subjects belonged to a fixed age group with the same nutritional status, i.e., normal BMI. Hence, restriction, randomization, and matching were performed at the study design level to avoid confounding [34].

Almost all the hands’ bones finish ossification at 18 years old for both sexes [35]. This study included a fixed age group of 18 to 25 years old. Different studies on university students included 18–25 years to estimate stature from the upper limbs [36-38].

Globally, there is significant variance in height. Western Europe has the tallest countries, whereas Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia have the shortest [3]. This variation might be due to several factors that influence height, and height is a highly heritable polygenic characteristic. Apart from genetics, various environmental, dietary, hormonal, and socioeconomic factors influence an individual’s height, depending on the geographical area and ethnic group [39].

Height is an excellent example of a polygenic hereditary trait altered significantly by environmental influences during fetal life, childhood, and adolescence [40]. Height similarities between relatives show that genetics controls 80% of height variation, with the rest influenced by environmental variables such as food and disease exposure [41]. Environmental factors (including nutrition, sickness, resources, and socioeconomic status) are crucial in determining height, especially during the initial two years of life and in low to middle-income countries [3].

Nutrition is among the essential factors that impact human growth, and poor nutritional intake is linked to growth retardation. The factors affecting negative net nutrition in low-middle income nations are less nutrition, water supply, and sanitation, which leads to malnutrition and the inability of an adult to reach his or her genetic height [42]. A study of different geographical locations on stature among young men in European countries found that diet, notably the intake of high-quality protein, explains most of the differences in height [42]. The present study included the students residing on campus, so the students generally consume the same type of food.

This work investigates the relationship between stature, ethnicity, sex, and hand dimension to examine the potential of using regression equations for predicting the stature of the explanatory variables. This study demonstrates that males have more significant stature and hand dimensions (p<0.001) than females. The results are in line with several works in the literature [16, 17, 43], which also mention that sex-sensitive equations must be employed when measuring stature based on different body parts. This study also shows differences in stature measurement for several large ethnic groups. For males, a difference was found between Bajau and Malay, as well as between Bajau and Chinese.

Meanwhile, for females, differences were found between KadazanDusun and Chinese, as well as between Bajau and Chinese. In other studies on West Malaysia, the difference was significant compared to males (p<0.05). For females, a significant difference was seen in stature when compared among Malay and Indian ethnicities (p<0.05) [44].

Previous researchers used simple linear regression to predict stature from different hand dimensions. Additionally, the hand length and handbreadth were used to estimate the stature of Hans’ population, with SEE being in the range of 2.95 and 5.64 cm for males and 4.52 to 5.15 cm for females [45]. Other related studies employed handbreadth, max handbreadth, and length of thumb, palm, middle finger, index finger, ring finger, and little finger, with SEE in the range of 5.34 to 6.11 cm for males and 3.68 to 4.39 cm for females [1]. This work employed hand length, handbreadth, middle finger, second inter-crease of the middle finger length, and hand span, with SEE in the range of 3.74 to 4.55 cm.

The present study demonstrated the highest association among explanatory variables for hand length and stature (right side: r = 0.833; left side: r = 0.842). A previous study on 18–25 years old Kashmiri medical students found that the length of the hand was the optimal parameter for stature measurement [46]. Related studies in Western Australia and the Saudi population demonstrated a significant correlation between stature on both sides [44, 45].

The forward selection approach was derived for multiple regression in this work, where a variable was chosen as input for the model in the case of p ≤0.05. The stature estimation models were proposed. Under these criteria, sex, LHL, ethnicity (i.e., Bajau and KadazanDusun), and L2ICL were input to measure the stature. The model explained 78.53% of the variability.

In Sarawak, a study was carried out on the Iban population measurement model to measure stature based on hands and handprints [10]. They did not show the percentage of variability explained by the models. A different work was done on the female Indian population with hand and palm length, and hand and a maximum handbreadth were considered explanatory variables. The model explained 49.1% of the variability of stature [47]. In another study on the Korean population, instead of using hand length, the study used other explanatory variables; the circumference of the wrist, palm, middle finger, and middle finger proximal phalange length of both sexes obtained an R2 value and explained 64.2% of the variability [48]. The R2 value was lower than that in this study. A study on Turks where stature acted as the dependent variable and hand, and foot length as explanatory variables obtained an R2 value of 0.861 [28]. The value was higher than in this study. The probable reason for having a higher R2 is that the foot length is in the formula, as researchers have demonstrated that lower limb dimensions are better predictors of stature than upper limbs [49].

Other than predicting stature from hand dimensions, these measurements can predict the handgrip strength [50]. The hand normative values are helpful for plastic and reconstructive surgery and for specific product design applications like designing garments, gloves, and artificial hand [51].

In the related literature, other upper limbs, humerus, and ulnar are also suitable predictors of stature [12]. Even though this study only estimated hand dimensions to obtain height, it could explain over 60% variability of the Sabahan population. The remaining variability may likely be because of the absence of certain explanatory variables such as age group, ulnar length, radial length, and possibly others. This study was meant to be carried out at the community level. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, data gathering at the community level was not possible. Alternatively, this study considered university students who satisfied the inclusion criteria and were vaccinated, who may not represent the major ethnic groups in Sabah. Nevertheless, the participants were from various areas and large ethnic groups in Sabah and had similar lifestyles, eating habits, and traditions. The formulae developed in this study are sex dependent which implies that inability to determine the biological sex would affect the predictability of the formulae. While choosing samples, the medical conditions that may influence anthropometry of the hand and stature were checked using a predefined questionnaire, and no investigation has confirmed this.

Conclusion

The study proposes linear models for the stature estimation in the Sabahan young adult Population. This study revealed differences, especially between sexes, and some ethnic differences were also found. Hence, the formulae derived for one race and both sexes might not apply to other races and sex. Therefore, this research provides valid anthropometric values for stature measurement based on anthropometric measurement of hand dimension.

(XLSX)

Click here for additional data file.

8 Jul 2022

A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.

A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.

An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Naji Arafat Mahat, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements.

1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf

2. Thank you for stating the following in the Acknowledgments Section of your manuscript:

"The authors are grateful to the Pusat Pengurusan Penyelidikan dan Inovasi (PPI), UMS for the grant to conduct this study and Bahagian Perkhidmatan Akademik (BPA), UMS for providing the student information"

We note that you have provided funding information that is not currently declared in your Funding Statement. However, funding information should not appear in the Acknowledgments section or other areas of your manuscript. We will only publish funding information present in the Funding Statement section of the online submission form.

Please remove any funding-related text from the manuscript and let us know how you would like to update your Funding Statement. Currently, your Funding Statement reads as follows:

"SCS and MTHP received grant.The Centre for Research and Innovation (PPI), Universiti Malaysia Sabah, funded this research work under the grant "Skim Geran Acculturation" (SGA0041-2019). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript."

Please include your amended statements within your cover letter; we will change the online submission form on your behalf.

3. Please include your full ethics statement in the ‘Methods’ section of your manuscript file. In your statement, please include the full name of the IRB or ethics committee who approved or waived your study, as well as whether or not you obtained informed written or verbal consent. If consent was waived for your study, please include this information in your statement as well.

4. Please include a copy of Table 5 which you refer to in your text on page 11.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: I have some major concerns over the scientific basis of the article. Stature is not the definite parameter in biological profiling since it follows normal distribution in each population. It will be more useful if the targeted individual is very tall or very short. Plus the best stature estimator is the femur (lower limb). The article should be written with these facts in mind without 'over-emphasizing' hand anthropometry. Other comments are as outline below.

1. Replace the word "gender" to "sex" throughout the article. Gender should not be used in such studies as gender is a social construct, the correct term is biological sex.

2. Line 71. "Hand morphometry offers crucial evidence in investigating crime scenes"- This statement is not true and needs to be rephrase.

3. Line 81. "The right hand length has precise parameters.."- How precise?

4. Consider diurnal variation - state what time of the day did you took the stature measurements.

4. Line 193. Rephrase the findings of the t-test.

5. Line 204-205. It is acknowledged in the literature that males are taller than females. Rephrase the sentence.

6. Fig 6 should be replaced with a simple correlation table to present the correlation between those five hand dimensions to stature.

7. Ethnicity has to be determined first before application of the formulae developed in this study. Provide demographic data for the people in Sabah.

8. Comparison with hand morphometric data of other ethnic groups in Malaysia. Are they significantly different that warrant specific formulae? Or are they similar that a general formulae for the whole population will be sufficient?

9. Language editing throughout the article, and especially on how to present and discuss the results.

10. Revise the article for grammatical errors, punctuation, and translation to English (Bahagian Perkhidmatan Akademik, Pusat Pengurusan Penyelidikan dan Inovasi).

11. Revise Table 4 and its caption.

12. Line 312-319. Include SD or SEE for each formula.

13. The formulae developed in this study are sex-dependent, what can we do in cases where the sex is unknown?

14. What other areas that may find hand morphometric data valuable? Include in discussion.

15. Line 408-409. Revise the statement.

Reviewer #2: Dear Author,

Thank you for the article. I enjoyed reading it. There are few items which needs to be addressed before the article is publishable. Issues need to be addressed are:

1. Missing stature abbreviations meanings. Example, LHL is not stated anywhere in the text. Not everyone will know left hand length is.

2. Minor grammar issues in Introduction and discussion. Line 74, 76, 81, 332.

3. Table 5 missing from manuscript.

4. Choice of Methodology: Stratified random sampling is acceptable, though I don't think it is suited here. The sample size data collection showcases a fixed amount of participants for each racial group. This is simple random sampling. There is nothing wrong with this methodology as well-when the analysis for each group is conducted in silo. It seems that all analysis are valid except for Table 9. In order to use stratified in this case, you will need to have the correct proportion amount of samples in the group based on the percentage in Sabah's demography to avoid over and under representation of population data.

Good luck.

Reviewer #3: Abstract

line 21- handspan, handbreath, hand?, middle finger length

Introduction

line 68- what kind of personal identification? for individualisation.

line 81- define SEE

limitation and impact of stature due to ethnic variation should be emphasised.

Methodology

why was only the middle fingers were chosen? justify

inclusion criteria - is there any difference between Malay and Malay (Bruneian)?

line 105- it means that the model only applicable for 'pure' ethnic?

Discussion

how did the randomization of sample occur?

line 332, 375 - 18 to 25

line 333 - Western Europe has the tallest countries?

line 399 - COVID-19 or Covid-19, standardize.

line 400 - university

Any example or evidence that show malnutrition or disease cause growth retardation? and how does this correlate with the Sabah ethnic?

Limitation of the proposed formula should be indicated.

**********

6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

**********

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

22 Jul 2022

1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf

Response: The revised manuscript meets PLOS ONE’s requirements.

2. Thank you for stating the following in the Acknowledgments Section of your manuscript:

"The authors are grateful to the Pusat Pengurusan Penyelidikan dan Inovasi (PPI), UMS for the grant to conduct this study and Bahagian Perkhidmatan Akademik (BPA), UMS for providing the student information"

We note that you have provided funding information that is not currently declared in your Funding Statement. However, funding information should not appear in the Acknowledgments section or other areas of your manuscript. We will only publish funding information present in the Funding Statement section of the online submission form.

Please remove any funding-related text from the manuscript and let us know how you would like to update your Funding Statement. Currently, your Funding Statement reads as follows:

"SCS and MTHP received grant.The Centre for Research and Innovation (PPI), Universiti Malaysia Sabah, funded this research work under the grant "Skim Geran Acculturation" (SGA0041-2019). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript."

Please include your amended statements within your cover letter; we will change the online submission form on your behalf.

Response: The authors agreed to remove the sentence having funding statement in the acknowledgement section. The authors do not have any amendment in the current Funding Statement.

3. Please include your full ethics statement in the ‘Methods’ section of your manuscript file. In your statement, please include the full name of the IRB or ethics committee who approved or waived your study, as well as whether or not you obtained informed written or verbal consent. If consent was waived for your study, please include this information in your statement as well.

Response: The authors have included the Ethics statement in the methodology section.

4. Please include a copy of Table 5 which you refer to in your text on page 11.

Response: The authors have included Table 5 near the table cited.

Review Comments to the Author

Reviewer #1: I have some major concerns over the scientific basis of the article. Stature is not the definite parameter in biological profiling since it follows normal distribution in each population. It will be more useful if the targeted individual is very tall or very short.

Response: The authors also agree that stature is not the definite parameter in biological profiling. That is why the opening remark is “Stature is one of the significant parameters to confirm a biological profile besides sex, age, and ancestry (Asadujjaman et al., 2019)”

Plus the best stature estimator is the femur (lower limb). The article should be written with these facts in mind without 'over-emphasizing' hand anthropometry.

Response: The authors also agree that lower limb parameters are better compared to the upper limb parameters to estimate stature. The authors have included this notion in the discussion. (414-416)

Other comments are as outline below.

1. Replace the word "gender" to "sex" throughout the article. Gender should not be used in such studies as gender is a social construct, the correct term is biological sex.

Response: The authors have amended accordingly.

2. Line 71. "Hand morphometry offers crucial evidence in investigating crime scenes"- This statement is not true and needs to be rephrase.

Response: The authors have omitted the statement

3. Line 81. "The right hand length has precise parameters.."- How precise?

Response: The authors have revised the above quoted part as “right hand length is the most reliable for estimating the stature among these hand measurements”. (Line 82-83)

4. Consider diurnal variation - state what time of the day did you took the stature measurements.

Response: The authors added the statement in the methodology regarding the diurnal variation as “The measurement was taken in the fixed period of 10 am to 12 pm to avoid the possible diurnal variation.” (Line139-140)

4. Line 193. Rephrase the findings of the t-test.

Response: Rephrased as “An independent sample t-test was performed to investigate the statistical significance of the observed difference.” (Line 203)

5. Line 204-205. It is acknowledged in the literature that males are taller than females. Rephrase the sentence.

Response: amended as “Therefore, the result demonstrates that male participants had a higher stature than females.” (Line 215)

6. Fig 6 should be replaced with a simple correlation table to present the correlation between those five hand dimensions to stature.

Response: Authors have replaced Fig 6 with Table 7 (Line 299-303) and subsequent figure number and table number has been amended.

7. Ethnicity has to be determined first before application of the formulae developed in this study. Provide demographic data for the people in Sabah.

Response: The authors have provided demographic data for the people of Sabah (Line:97-105)

8. Comparison with hand morphometric data of other ethnic groups in Malaysia. Are they significantly different that warrant specific formulae? Or are they similar that a general formulae for the whole population will be sufficient?

Response: The hand morphometric data of the participants of the current study are different from other ethnic groups of Malaysia but there was difference in between the major ethnic groups of Sabah. The reasons have been elaborated in the introduction (Line:97-105).

9. Language editing throughout the article, and especially on how to present and discuss the results.

Response: The authors have taken professional service in this regard.

10. Revise the article for grammatical errors, punctuation, and translation to English (Bahagian Perkhidmatan Akademik, Pusat Pengurusan Penyelidikan dan Inovasi).

Response: The authors have amended accordingly. (Line 445)

11. Revise Table 4 and its caption.

Response: The authors have amended accordingly. (Line 248)

12. Line 312-319. Include SD or SEE for each formula.

Response: The authors have mentioned the root mean square error (or RMSE for a regression model is similar with the SD for the ideal measurement model) in Table 8.

13. The formulae developed in this study are sex-dependent, what can we do in cases where the sex is unknown?

Response: The authors have mentioned this issue in the limitation as “The formulae developed in this study are sex dependent which implies that inability to determine the biological sex would affect the predictability of the formulae.” (Lines-430-432)

14. What other areas that may find hand morphometric data valuable? Include in discussion.

Response: The authors have included in the discussion (Line 417-420)

15. Line 408-409. Revise the statement.

Response: The authors revised the statement as “The study proposes linear models for the stature estimation in the Sabahan young adult Population.” (Line 437-438)

Reviewer #2: Dear Author,

Thank you for the article. I enjoyed reading it. There are few items which needs to be addressed before the article is publishable. Issues need to be addressed are:

1. Missing stature abbreviations meanings. Example, LHL is not stated anywhere in the text. Not everyone will know left hand length is.

Response: The authors have tried their best to find all the missing abbreviations and provided accordingly.

2. Minor grammar issues in Introduction and discussion. Line 74, 76, 81, 332.

Response: Authors have amended accordingly.

3. Table 5 missing from manuscript.

Response: The authors have inserted Table 5 in the appropriate place.

4. Choice of Methodology: Stratified random sampling is acceptable, though I don't think it is suited here. The sample size data collection showcases a fixed amount of participants for each racial group. This is simple random sampling. There is nothing wrong with this methodology as well-when the analysis for each group is conducted in silo. It seems that all analysis are valid except for Table 9. In order to use stratified in this case, you will need to have the correct proportion amount of samples in the group based on the percentage in Sabah's demography to avoid over and under representation of population data.

Response: As the subjects were first stratified by ethnicities and then by gender, and then they were randomly selected, this is a stratified random sampling. In the assumption for conducting multiple linear regression, the subjects should be selected through any of the random sampling techniques (Sullivan III, 2017) and each stratum should have the minimum sample size of 25 (Jenkins and Quintana-Ascencio 2020). As this study included samples (46 per stratum) more than the minimum sample (25 per stratum) required for multiple linear regression and having same number participants facilitates homogeneity of the stratum which is more desirable than sample being proportion to the population. As the subjects were included in the study through stratified random sampling, every person within the sampling frame had the equal probability to be included in the study which addressed the representation of the population.

Good luck.

Reviewer #3: Abstract

line 21- handspan, handbreath, hand?, middle finger length

Response: The authors have inserted the missing word “length”. (Line 20)

Introduction

line 68- what kind of personal identification? for individualisation.

Response: When DNA fingerprinting requires a large data to compare with the crime scene findings. By estimating stature, it would narrow down the focus point which would aid to identify the victim. (Krishan et al.,2012)

line 81- define SEE

Response: Authors have included the definition. (Line 87)

limitation and impact of stature due to ethnic variation should be emphasised.

Response: The authors have followed the suggestion and amended accordingly (Line 96-106)

Methodology

why was only the middle fingers were chosen? Justify

Response: The anatomical axis of the hand passes through the middle finger. Other than that compared to other fingers the middle finger demonstrated higher relationship with the stature. That is why the researchers chose the middle finger.

inclusion criteria - is there any difference between Malay and Malay (Bruneian)?

Response: The authors have mentioned the difference in the introduction (Line 100-102)

line 105- it means that the model only applicable for 'pure' ethnic?

Response: Yes. The researchers included the participants whose parents and grandparents belonged to the same ethnic group.

Discussion

how did the randomization of sample occur?

line 332, 375 - 18 to 25

Response: Through stratified random sampling. The subjects were first stratified by ethnicities and then by gender, and then they were randomly selected.

line 333 - Western Europe has the tallest countries?

Response: The literature review shows that Western Europeans are comparatively taller than other part of the world.

line 399 - COVID-19 or Covid-19, standardize.

Response: The authors have standardized to Covid-19.

line 400 – university

Response: The authors have amended accordingly

Any example or evidence that show malnutrition or disease cause growth retardation? and how does this correlate with the Sabah ethnic?

Response: Kyle UG, Shekerdemian LS, Coss-Bu JA. Growth failure and nutrition considerations in chronic childhood wasting diseases. Nutr Clin Pract. 2015 Apr;30(2):227-38. doi: 10.1177/0884533614555234. Epub 2014 Nov 6. PMID: 25378356. This article mentioned about malnutrition and various diseases that cause growth retardation.

The conditions and disease that are related to growth retardation are applicable to all population and ethnicities. This is how this correlated with Sabah ethnic groups.

Limitation of the proposed formula should be indicated.

Response: Authors have indicated the limitations of the proposed formula. (Line 431-433)

Submitted filename: response to reviewers .docx

Click here for additional data file.

15 Aug 2022

15 Aug 2022

Dear editor and reviewers,

Please accept our sincere gratitude for your volunteerism to review our manuscript to polish it to be fit for the renowned journal. We do appreciate your valuable time and critical thinking for the purpose to enrich the manuscript. Each of your comments are very crucial and we have tried our best either to incorporate into the manuscript or to answer to your queries.

The following are the responses prepared by the authors and have been inserted issue by issue:

Review Comments to the Author

Reviewer #1: Dear authors,

Content-wise, I am happy with the revised manuscript.

However, the manuscript needs to undergo another round of language editing. Revise the usage of past tense and past perfect tense in the manuscript. Grammatical errors need to be corrected:

1. Replace "gender" with "sex".

Response: All "gender" have been replaced with "sex"

2. Replace "scoping down" with "narrowing down".

Response: Amended as per advice

3. Line 86: There is no Reference no. 132.

Response: It is actually 13. There was a typo when the references were re-numbered.

4. Line 123

5. Line 136

6. Line 139

7. Line 156

8. Line 168

9. Line 253-254

10. Line 352

11. Line 355

12. Line 439

and throughout the manuscript.

Response: The authors have taken the assistance of grammar correcting software Grammarly and also taken the editing service from PM Proofreading Services. The certificate provided by them has been attached.

Reviewer #2: The author has addressed the issues raised by the current reviewer previously and the paper is now acceptable for publication.

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed. It is a pleasure to read the manuscript. It is a very interesting field to enhance the forensic investigation.

Our sincere gratitude to all the reviewers for your sincere contribution for the betterment of science. At the end, we hope that our sincere effort could address all the requirements of the editor and our revision would satisfy the imminent reviewers.

Sincerely yours,

M Tanveer Hossain Parash (corresponding author)

Submitted filename: response to reviewers latest.docx

Click here for additional data file.

17 Aug 2022

A Multivariate Analysis to Propose Linear Models for the Stature Estimation in the Sabahan Young Adult Population

PONE-D-22-16753R2

Dear Dr. Parash,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Naji Arafat Mahat, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

19 Aug 2022

PONE-D-22-16753R2

A Multivariate Analysis to Propose Linear Models for the Stature Estimation in the Sabahan Young Adult Population

Dear Dr. Parash:

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org.

If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Dr. Naji Arafat Mahat

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE