Conceptualizing and quantifying body condition using structural equation modelling: A user guide.

ABSTRACT: Body condition is an important concept in behaviour, evolution and conservation, commonly used as a proxy of an individual's performance, for example in the assessment of environmental impacts. Although body condition potentially encompasses a wide range of health state dimensions (nutritional, immune or hormonal status), in practice most studies operationalize body condition using a single (univariate) measure, such as fat storage. One reason for excluding additional axes of variation may be that multivariate descriptors of body condition impose statistical and analytical challenges. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used in many fields to study questions relating multidimensional concepts, and we here explain how SEM is a useful analytical tool to describe the multivariate nature of

SUBMITTER: Frauendorf M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9291099 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature