Abstract:
Growth is described as changes in body size and shapewith age. The primary motivation for
studying human growth is to understand the underlying biological changes that occur at the
individual andpopulation levels. Thisstudy is aimed toinvestigatethe growthcharacteristics of
childrenin four low- andmiddle-incomecountries.
Inconsistent withthisobjective,we adopted
dynamicstrajectorymodelsthataccountforbothindividualandpopulationgrowthchangesover
time. The investigation was carried out on the longitudinal data obtained from the Young Lives
cohort study.
The outcome of interest is a periodic child’s physical height measured in
centimeters from age one to fifteen years. A total of 3401 males and 3200 females with height
measured on five occasions, were included. The regression and structural equation modeling
frameworks were employed to analyse the data. In the regression framework, mixed-effect
techniques such as fractional polynomial, nonlinear growth curve and piecewise regression
modelswereadopted.Inthestructuralequationmodelingframework,latentmodelingtechniques
such as latent growth curve, latent basis growth curve and growth mixture models were used.
Latent growth curve models were used to characterise and quantify the latent change processes
of children's height growth. The findingsshowedthat
therewas apositivenonlinearrelationship
between the height growthof childrenand their ages.
This nonlinear trajectory was foundto be
segmented into three phases of linear trajectories.
A quick growth change was observed in the
first phasebuttherateofincrementis decreasedas achildgrewolder.
The
findingsalsoshowed
that gender and country differences had a significant influence on a child's height growth.
Growth mixture modeling was employed to examine heterogeneous growth trajectories in
population.It wasfoundthatthe growthofchildrenhad2-grouplatenttrajectoriesdominatedby
genderdifference.