Growth Curves Modelling and Its Application

Abstract

In this article, we compare two ways of modelling measures of fetal growth. The goal is to impute the missing information for certain ultrasound measurements that are observed at different times and with different numbers of observations. To analyze the effect that other variables have, such as environmental exposure to certain substances or diet, on fetal growth based on these data, we need to handle the information measured at the same instant of time for all the individuals under study, preferably in three time windows of pregnancy (first trimester, week 12; second trimester, week 20; third trimester, week 34). For this, data at these chosen times, in case they are not available, must be imputed from the available information using an appropriate statistical model. One option is to use a linear model, specifically a generalized least squares model that is fitted to the features shown in the data. The other option is to use diffusion processes, estimating their parameters based on the available information. In both options, missing data can be estimated with the unconditional fitted model, conditional on the previous available measurement, or conditional to the closest measurement.

Keywords

• growth curves
• diffusion processes
• linear models