Hormone research in paediatricsAug 27, 2026

Measuring Biological Age in Children: Comparing Methods and Medical Usefulness

Longevity & Aging Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Aug 28, 2026

Abstract

Biological age (BA) assessment methods vary widely and are influenced by the chronological age of the individual.

BA is a measure of how old cells, tissues, and organs appear compared to chronological age.
Methods for determining BA in children include observation of tooth eruption and maturation, and radiographic techniques.
Radiographic methods track ossification center appearance and epiphyseal maturation, alongside physical examination of secondary sexual characteristics.
Practical issues exist in skeletal age (SA) assessment, particularly when using established methods like Greulich and Pyle and Tanner Whitehouse.
Newer, less validated assessment methods include magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, ultrasound, and dual x-ray techniques.
Modern biological methods for estimating BA focus on multi 'omics and DNA methylation but are less effective for individual evaluations in children.

Simplified

The biological age (BA) is an estimates of how old cells, tissues and organs are at the time of observation. How one determines the BA depends on the chronological age of interest, fetal to adult. In this historical mini-review we provide an overview of various methods for the determination of BA in children. Through the ages the eruption and maturation of the dentition (observation) and then radiographic methods have been used. Later the use of radiographs to track the appearance of ossification centers and the appearance and maturation of epiphyses at the growth plates and the physical examination of the secondary sexual characteristics have been employed to define BA. We then discuss some practical issues related to skeletal age (SA) assessment, using the well described Greulich and Pyle and the Tanner Whitehouse methods before moving to some of the newer, but less validated methods of SA assessment using magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, ultrasound and dual x-ray assessment techniques. We close with a short discussion of modern methods for the estimation of BA noting that these biological methods depend on multi 'omics and DNA methylation, but are more suited to the prediction of adult morbidities than they are to the determination of BA of an individual child at the time of evaluation-the precise parameter of interest at that time.

Measuring Biological Age in Children: Comparing Methods and Medical Usefulness

Abstract

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