Human stature: which growth model?

The performance of the 6-parameter model No. 3 of Preece and Baines (1978) for growth in human stature is compared with that of the 5-parameter model No. 1 and of the recent 7-parameter JPPS model (Jolicoeur et al., 1988) on data ranging from birth to adulthood about 27 healthy children from the French auxological survey. Model No. 3 has slightly larger residual mean squares on the average, in spite of its additional parameter, and is less robust than model No. 1. The JPPS model passes through the origin, fits infants as satisfactorily as older children and has much smaller residual mean squares than the models of Preece and Baines. The recently revised 6-parameter model of Kanefuji and Shohoji (1990) is not invariant with respect to time scale. JPPS appears to be the most satisfactory asymptotic model for growth in human stature at the present time.