Growth curve models describe change (growth) with respect to a control variable. They are well-suited for analyzing group-level differences in biomedical data, particularly in cases where capturing and analyzing individual growth trajectories is important. Furthermore, for group comparisons, growth curve models alleviate the problem of multiple comparisons as fitted-curve coefficients are compared in contrast to traditional approaches where multiple individual points along the curve are compared. In our study, the growth trajectories of graph metric values of a subject carry important information about the variance within the group and needs to be incorporated in the model. The coefficients of growth curve models capture the baseline performance, instantaneous growth rate, and the acceleration of the variable of interest.
