Relationships among biological growth parameters for body weight in Japanese children.
Longitudinal weight records for 360 boys and 345 girls from birth to young adulthood are used. The Count-Gompertz growth curve is fitted to individual growth records in order to characterize individual body weight growth. The authors present the mean-constant growth curves of boys and girls divided by weight at the peak weight velocity for boys and girls, and also girls are subdivided by their weight at menarche. Adult weight has no simple relationship with the timing of adolescence and menarcheal age. Adult weight is, nevertheless, negatively correlated with the timing of adolescence (or menarcheal age) when weight at the timing of adolescence (or menarcheal weight) and/or age at growth completion are held constant. Age at growth completion also negatively correlated with weight at menarche when adult weight and menarcheal age are held constant. Even if it is difficult to find a simple biological relationship among these parameters, for researchers looking for relationships and structures among biological parameters, this partial correlation may be useful. A contra-pair of biological parameters, age and weight, at two growth epochs of weight is introduced, and its properties are discussed in detail.
Sumiya
T
T
Research Institute for Information Science and Education, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Japan.
Nakahara
H
H
Shohoji
T
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006128:Growth; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007564:Japan; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008572:Menarche; D008954:Models, Biological