ABSTRACT
Studies of developmental changes in left ventricular mass (LVM) among children and youth are still limited, and have not systematically considered the influence of habitual physical activity (PA) on LVM. Partitioning the relative contribution of PA to LVM from changes associated with growth and maturation requires longitudinal data and appropriate analytical techniques. To this end, multilevel modelling (Goldstein, 1995) is appropriate for the analysis of repeated measurements. It is also argued (Nevill et al., 1998) that multiplicative rather than additive models would provide a superior fit and more plausible interpretation of such data. Accordingly, the current study was designed to identify the developmental predictors of LVM and to examine the contribution of multiplicative allometric structures as a relevant alternative to traditional multilevel model structures (i.e., additive polynomial models).
