ISSN:
1436-6215
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
,
Medicine
Notes:
Summary Recently,Weihofen andPringle compared, by means of „Z-scores“, the heights and weights of 36 children with cystic fibrosis with the heights and weights of 30 „normal“ children, finding that indeed the sick children were both significantly shorter and significantly lighter than healthy ones. However, it would be expected that this be the case, and for that reason, we ask and answer, by means of multivariate statistical theory, whether the height-weight growth in normal children has been not just retarded, but distorted. That is, if growth has been retarded, as could be the case with any ill child regardless of the illness, he could possibly recover what he has lost more readily if his growth is uniformly retarded, as a prematurely born infant can reach full height-weight proportions. Of course, we define mathematically exactly what we mean by the term „distortion“. Next, we correct several calculation errors ofWeihofen andPringle and point out the necessity of publishing the raw data. That is, we wrote Mrs.Weihofen for the original data for normal children and were told that she „must have discarded“ it. Since not all data is available, it cannot be reviewed for accuracy, and we must make an approximation, which we explain, in order to apply our multivariate statistical procedure. However, we do not feel that the approximation will seriously affect the results, and, in any case, it affords an opportunity to demonstrate the method.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02020932
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