Multiplicative Modeling of Children's Growth and Its Statistical Properties

TL;DR

This paper presents a numerical growth model for Japanese children that explains the transition in height distribution from lognormal to normal during puberty, emphasizing the role of variability in puberty onset.

Contribution

It introduces a multiplicative growth model that accounts for the statistical transition in children's height distribution based on puberty onset variability.

Findings

Height distribution shifts from lognormal to normal during puberty.

Variability in puberty onset explains the distribution transition.

Model accurately predicts height distribution changes.

Abstract

We develop a numerical growth model which can predict the statistical properties of the height distribution of Japanese children. Our previous studies have clarified that the height distribution of schoolchildren shows a transition from the lognormal to the normal distribution during puberty period. In this paper, we demonstrate by our simulations that the transition occurs owing to the variability of the onset of the puberty period.