Regression based principal component analysis for sparse functional data with applications to screening growth paths

Growth charts are widely used in pediatric care for assessing childhood body size measurements (e.g., height or weight). The existing growth charts screen one body size at a single given age. However, when a child has multiple measures over time and exhibits a growth path, how to assess those measures jointly in a rigorous and quantitative way remains largely undeveloped in the literature. In this paper, we develop a new method to construct...