PhD defence: Statistical analyses of growth and body composition in children

Signe Marie Jensen

PhD thesis

Growth may be used as an indicator of nutritional status and health and well-being of a child in general. Monitoring growth of a child may reveal aspects of under- and over nutrition. More direct measures of body composition such as fat and lean mass may also be considered, but a high quality assessment of body composition is not always possible. We validated the ability of simple anthropometric measurements including weight, height, and skinfold thickness to assess body composition in 3-year old children. Further, we fitted BMI growth curves and found characteristics of the early peak in the BMI curve to be associated with body composition at 3 years of age.

The present thesis explored and advanced a number of different approaches for improving various aspects of statistical modeling and inference of body composition data. Furthermore, as these approaches involved several models and numerous comparisons, the thesis also addressed relevant methods for simultaneous inference in the context of model averaging as well as multiplicity adjustment of p-values.

2015, 191 pages,
ISBN 978 87 7611 851 8

Time

6 March 2015, 13:00

Venue

Aud. A2-70 04, Thorvaldsensvej 40, 1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.

Opponents

Associate professor Lotte Lauritzen (chair), Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Hoofdocent Christel Faes, University Hasselt, Belgium.

Senior Lecturer Lorna Aucott, University of Aberdeen, UK.

Supervisors

Associate professor Christian Ritz, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professor Kim Fleischer Michaelsen, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark,

Associate Professor Christian Bressen Pipper, Department of Public Health, Section of Biostatistics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark,