title: A comparison of goodness of fit tests for age-related reference ranges.
abstract: Age-related reference ranges based on cubic spline or kernel-based smoothing methods lack a parametric framework with which to assess goodness of fit, as the distribution of the log-likelihood ratio comparing models with different degrees of smoothing is not known in general. Several methods have been proposed to assess goodness of fit in this case: Healy's grid test, Royston's Q tests and van Buuren's worm plot. Here we compare the performance of the various methods, including an extension of the Q tests, and show how they can be used, with other information including the appearance of the fitted curves, to inform the choice of model for age-related reference ranges of height and weight in a large Dutch data set.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Child Health, London, U.K. h.pan@ich.ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Cole
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000886:Anthropometry / Q000379:methods*; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012016:Reference Values