A lifetime asymptotic growth curve for human height.

A new seven-parameter asymptotic growth curve has been applied to longitudinal data on the height of 13 boys and 14 girls from 1 month to 19 years of age. The residual sums of squares with this new curve were 7.5 times lower on the average than with the currently-used five-parameter curve No. 1 of Preece and Baines (1978, Annals of Human Biology 5, 1-24) and 2.4 times lower than with the recent six-parameter curve of Shohoji and Sasaki (1987, Growth 51, 432-450). The new curve is expressed with respect to total age, passes through the origin, and fits infants as satisfactorily as older children.