Centile curve charts are a vital tool for health and medical practitioners monitoring child growth and the development of disease. The GAMLSS statistical model and methodology developed at London Met by Prof. Robert Rigby and Prof. Mikis D. Stasinopoulos has been used worldwide to produce centile and growth curve charts.
Applications of GAMLSS have led to more accurate diagnoses of medical conditions and therefore better targeted treatment, having a positive impact on a wide range of human health areas – especially for infants and children – and improving health globally.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), for example, used GAMLSS to develop the Child Growth Standards, which are used in over 150 countries to monitor the health and nutritional status of children. The Global Lung Function Initiative similarly relied on GAMLSS for lung capacity centiles to diagnose and treat respiratory disease, while national health organisations including in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, and Germany endorse GAMLSS-produced centile and growth curve charts.
A statistician with WHO confirmed the “indispensable contribution to the construction of the WHO Child Growth standards” of GAMLSS, while the chair of the ERS Global Lung Function Initiative stated that “Within the field of respiratory medicine the application of the GAMLSS technique to develop all-age reference equations has had a tremendous impact”.
