Linear spline multilevel models for summarising childhood growth trajectories: A guide to their application using examples from five birth cohorts.

ABSTRACT: Childhood growth is of interest in medical research concerned with determinants and consequences of variation from healthy growth and development. Linear spline multilevel modelling is a useful approach for deriving individual summary measures of growth, which overcomes several data issues (co-linearity of repeat measures, the requirement for all individuals to be measured at the same ages and bias due to missing data). Here, we outline the application of this methodology to model individual trajectories of length/height and weight, drawing on examples from five cohorts from different generations and different geographical regions with varying levels of economic development. We describe the unique features of the data within each cohort that have implications for the application of linear

SUBMITTER: Howe LD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4074455 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature