2134/36608
Sarah Crozier
Sarah
Crozier
Will Johnson
Will
Johnson
Tim J. Cole
Tim J.
Cole
Corrie Macdonald-Wallis
Corrie
Macdonald-Wallis
Graciela Muniz-Terrera
Graciela
Muniz-Terrera
Hazel Inskip
Hazel
Inskip
Kate Tilling
Kate
Tilling
A discussion of statistical methods to characterize early growth and its impact on bone mineral content later in childhood
Loughborough University
2019
Growth mixture models
Lifecourse epidemiology
Linear spline models
Multilevel models
SITAR
Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified
2019-01-17 10:57:10
Journal contribution
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/A_discussion_of_statistical_methods_to_characterize_early_growth_and_its_impact_on_bone_mineral_content_later_in_childhood/9626477
Background Many statistical methods are available to model longitudinal growth data and relate derived summary measures to later outcomes.
Aim To apply and compare commonly used methods to a realistic scenario including pre- and postnatal data, missing data and confounders.
Subjects and methods Data were collected from 753 offspring in the Southampton Women’s Survey with measurements of bone mineral content (BMC) at age 6 years. Ultrasound measures included crown-rump length (11 weeks’ gestation) and femur length (19 and 34 weeks’ gestation); postnatally, infant length (birth, 6 and 12 months) and height (2 and 3 years) were measured. A residual growth model, two-stage multilevel linear spline model, joint multilevel linear spline model, SITAR and a growth mixture model were used to relate growth to 6-year BMC.
Results Results from the residual growth, two-stage and joint multilevel linear spline models were most comparable: an increase in length at all ages was positively associated with BMC, the strongest association being with later growth. Both SITAR and the growth mixture model demonstrated that length was positively associated with BMC.
Conclusions Similarities and differences in results from a variety of analytic strategies need to be understood in the context of each statistical methodology.