Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Search research articles

Related Experiment Videos

Testing conditional independence in diagnostic palaeoepidemiology.

Jesper L Boldsen¹

¹Institute of Forensic Medicine, Department of Anthropology, ADBOU, University of Southern Denmark, DK 5230 Odense M, Denmark. Jboldsen@health.sdu.dk

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

|May 17, 2005

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Transition analysis 3: New skeletal age indicators.

Forensic science international·2026

Same author

Transition analysis 3: Skeletal age estimation program.

Forensic science international·2026

Same author

Mapping bone microstructure trace element composition: Sr, Ba, Cu, and Pb in an early modern Danish skeleton.

American journal of biological anthropology·2023

Same author

Reply to Barton et al: signatures of natural selection during the Black Death.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2023

Same author

Using SXRF and LA-ICP-TOFMS to Explore Evidence of Treatment and Physiological Responses to Leprosy in Medieval Denmark.

Biology·2023

Same author

Emergence, continuity, and evolution of Yersinia pestis throughout medieval and early modern Denmark.

Current biology : CB·2023

Same journal

A geometric morphometric assessment of shape variation in adult pelvic morphology.

American journal of physical anthropology·2021

Same journal

Sexual dimorphism in the size and shape of the non-obstetric pelvis across anthropoids.

American journal of physical anthropology·2021

Same journal

The biological index of frailty: A new index for the assessment of frailty in human skeletal remains.

American journal of physical anthropology·2021

Same journal

Mass violence in Copper Age Europe: The massacre burial site from Potočani, Croatia.

American journal of physical anthropology·2021

Same journal

Skeletal evidence of structural violence among undocumented migrants from Mexico and Central America.

American journal of physical anthropology·2021

Same journal

Technical note: Artificial Resynthesis Technology for the experimental formation of dental microwear textures.

American journal of physical anthropology·2021

See all related articles

Medieval leprosy prevalence was examined in European skeletal samples. The study found that the assumption of conditional independence among lesion scores is valid when leprosy is the primary factor influencing variations.

Area of Science:

Paleopathology
Bioarchaeology
Medieval History

Background:

Leprosy was a significant disease in the Middle Ages, affecting a considerable portion of the adult population.
Previous studies on medieval skeletal samples analyzed leprosy-related lesions assuming conditional independence.

Observation:

This research developed and applied a statistical test based on odds ratios to examine the conditional independence assumption.
The test was applied to three European medieval skeletal samples: Tirup (Denmark, 12th-14th century AD), Refshale (Denmark, 12th-14th century AD), and Lauchheim (Germany, 460-680 AD).

Findings:

Leprosy was present in all three samples, with prevalence rates of 25.5% in Tirup, 39.1% in Refshale, and 16.2% in Lauchheim.
The study demonstrated that the assumption of conditional independence among lesion scores cannot be rejected when leprosy is the main cause of variation.

Related Experiment Videos

Implications:

This validates previous analytical methods used in paleopathology for studying leprosy in skeletal remains.
The findings support the reliability of past research on medieval leprosy occurrence and its implications based on skeletal evidence.