Publications Details

Timing based clustering in the Northern Finland Birth Cohorts 1966 and 1986 suggests two new patterns for childhood BMI curve [Poster]

Tucker, James D.; Heiskala, Anni; Sillanpaa, Mikko; Sebert, Sylvain

Childhood body mass index (BMI) is a widely used measure of adiposity in children (<18 years of age). Children grow with individual tempo and individuals of the same age, or of the same BMI, might be in different phases in their individual growth curves. Variability between different childhood BMI curves can be separated in two components: phase variability (x-axis; time) and amplitude variability (y-axis; BMI). Phase variability can be thought of arising from differences in maturational age between individuals. This is related to the timing of peaks and valleys in a child’s BMI curve.