Statistical Analysis of Human Growth and Development

 Content: Introduction Overview Human Growth Human Development Statistical Considerations  Causal Reasoning and Study Designs Causality Study Designs  Basic Statistical Concepts and Tools Normal Distribution Statistical Inference and Significance Standardized Scores Statistical Programming  Quantifying Growth and Development: Use of Existing Tools Growth Development Change Scores  Regression Analysis of Quantitative Outcomes Least-Squares Regression Quantile Regression Covariate-Adjusted Variables  Regression Analysis of Binary Outcomes Basic Concepts Introduction to Generalized Linear Models Logistic Regression Log-Binomial and Binomial Regression Models  Regression Analysis of Censored Outcomes Fundamentals Regression Analysis of Right-Censored Data Analysis of Interval-Censored Data  Analysis of Repeated Measurements and Clustered Data Introduction Robust Variance Estimator Analysis of Subject-Level Summary Statistics Mixed Models  Quantifying Growth: Development of New Tools Capturing Nonlinear Relationships Modeling  Quantifying Development: Development of New Tools Summary Index Based on Binary Items Summary Index Based on Quantitative Variables  Defining Growth and Development: Longitudinal Measurements Expected Change and Unexplained Residuals Reference Intervals for Longitudinal Monitoring Conditional Scores by Quantile Regression Trajectory Characteristics  Validity and Reliability Concepts Statistical Methods Further Topics  Missing Values and Imputation Introduction When Is Missing Data (Not) a Problem?  Interpolation and Extrapolation Mixed Models Multiple Imputation Imputing Censored Data  Multiple Comparisons The Problem When Not to Do Multiplicity Adjustment Strategies of Analysis to Prevent Multiplicity P-Value Adjustments Close Testing Procedure  Regression Analysis Strategy Introduction Rationale of Using Multivariable Regression Point Measures, Change Scores, and Unexplained Residuals Issues in Variable Selection Interaction Role of Prior Knowledge  References  Appendix A: Stata Codes to Generate Simulated Clinical Trial (SCT) Dataset Appendix B: Stata Codes to Generate Simulated Longitudinal Study (SLS) Dataset Appendix C: Stata Program for Detrended Q-Q Plot Appendix D: Weighted Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Binary Items  Index
 Abstract:             ''Human growth refers to changes in anthropometric measurements, such as fetal size parameters, height, weight, and body mass index. Development refers to changes in cognitive, social-emotional, locomotor, and other abilities. This book illustrates how statistical methods can be used to answer research questions in human growth and development. In addition to describing methods, it looks at how well a method addresses a specific research question and how to interpret and present the analytic results. Although the examples are drawn from human growth and development, the concepts and methods are applicable to studies of many other physical and psychological phenomena, such as lung function and depressive symptoms. Requiring introductory statistics knowledge, the book is intended for clinical researchers, epidemiologists, social scientists, statisticians, related researchers, and post-graduate students investigating human growth and development''