Skeletal maturation is a better indicator for which aspect of age?

• A. Chronological age
• B. Sexual maturation
• C. Bone density
• D. Height percentile

Answer: (B)

Skeletal maturation reflects biological development tied to puberty. As puberty progresses, sex steroids accelerate bone maturation, so bone age tends to track with the stages of sexual maturation rather than with how many years someone has lived. In other words, bone maturation is a better proxy for where a person is in the pubertal process than for chronological age, bone density, or height percentile. Chronological age just counts time since birth, bone density relates to mineralization, and height percentile shows current height but doesn’t reliably indicate pubertal timing.