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<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="research-article">
<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">JDS</journal-id>
<journal-title-group><journal-title>Journal of Data Science</journal-title></journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">1683-8602</issn><issn pub-type="ppub">1680-743X</issn><issn-l>1680-743X</issn-l>
<publisher>
<publisher-name>School of Statistics, Renmin University of China</publisher-name>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">JDS1197</article-id>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.6339/25-JDS1197</article-id>
<article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
<subject>Data Science in Action</subject></subj-group></article-categories>
<title-group>
<article-title>Predicting Stunted Growth in Two Year Old Bangladeshi Children via the Super Learner</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Cook</surname><given-names>Heather L.</given-names></name><email xlink:href="mailto:hlcook1@usi.edu">hlcook1@usi.edu</email><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1197_aff_001">1</xref><xref ref-type="corresp" rid="cor1">∗</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Ma</surname><given-names>Jennie Z.</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1197_aff_002">2</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Keenan</surname><given-names>Daniel M.</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1197_aff_002">2</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Donowitz</surname><given-names>Jeffrey R.</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1197_aff_002">2</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Kirkpatrick</surname><given-names>Beth D.</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1197_aff_003">3</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Haque</surname><given-names>Rashidul</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1197_aff_004">4</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Nayak</surname><given-names>Uma</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1197_aff_002">2</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Petri, Jr.</surname><given-names>William A.</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1197_aff_002">2</xref>
</contrib>
<aff id="j_jds1197_aff_001"><label>1</label>Evansville, IN, <institution>University of Southern Indiana</institution>, <country>United States</country></aff>
<aff id="j_jds1197_aff_002"><label>2</label>Charlottesville, VA, <institution>University of Virginia</institution>, <country>United States</country></aff>
<aff id="j_jds1197_aff_003"><label>3</label>Burlington, VT, <institution>University of Vermont</institution>, <country>United States</country></aff>
<aff id="j_jds1197_aff_004"><label>4</label>Dhaka, Bangladesh, <institution>International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research</institution>, <country>Bangladesh</country></aff>
</contrib-group>
<author-notes>
<corresp id="cor1"><label>∗</label>Corresponding author. Email: <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="mailto:hlcook1@usi.edu">hlcook1@usi.edu</ext-link>.</corresp>
</author-notes>
<pub-date pub-type="ppub"><year>2025</year></pub-date><pub-date pub-type="epub"><day>4</day><month>8</month><year>2025</year></pub-date><volume content-type="ahead-of-print">0</volume><issue>0</issue><fpage>1</fpage><lpage>21</lpage><supplementary-material id="S1" content-type="archive" xlink:href="jds1197_s001.zip" mimetype="application" mime-subtype="x-zip-compressed">
<caption>
<title>Supplementary Material</title>
<p>The supplementary material consists of the Supplementary Tables and Analyses PDF, a README file, R scripts to run all analyses, RData file with the data appropriately formatted for analyses, and RData files with the corresponding models. The Supplementary Tables and Analyses PDF file that contains data descriptions, summary of methods, and results for the NNLS optimization for the continuous outcome. The README file briefly explains each file.</p>
</caption>
</supplementary-material><history><date date-type="received"><day>14</day><month>11</month><year>2024</year></date><date date-type="accepted"><day>2</day><month>7</month><year>2025</year></date></history>
<permissions><copyright-statement>2025 The Author(s). Published by the School of Statistics and the Center for Applied Statistics, Renmin University of China.</copyright-statement><copyright-year>2025</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access" xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">
<license-p>Open access article under the <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</ext-link> license.</license-p></license></permissions>
<abstract>
<p>Stunted growth in children is a worldwide issue which may cause long term problems for individuals stunted as early as two years of age. However, predicting stunted growth with accuracy is quite complex, but machine learning poses a distinct advantage in this regard. While several techniques are available for predictive modeling, the Super Learner stands out as an ensemble method that integrates multiple algorithms into a single predictive model with enhanced performance. In this study, the Super Learner model, comprising generalized linear model, bagged trees, random forests, conditional random forest, stochastic gradient boosting, Bayesian additive regression trees, neural networks, and model averaged neural networks, achieved high performance with high area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, Brier Score, and the minimum of precision and recall values. However, after analyzing the results from cross validation, the final model selected was the Bayesian additive regression trees. Within the final model, the height-for-age z-score at one year, income, expenditure, anti-lipopolysaccharide antibody at week 6 and at week 18, plasma retinol binding protein at week 6, plasma soluble cluster designation 14 at week 18, fecal Reg 1B at week 12, vitamin D at week 18, mother’s weight and height at enrollment, fecal calprotectin at week 12, fecal myeloperoxidase at week 12, number of days of diarrhea through the first year of life, and the number of days of exclusive breastfeeding through the first year of life emerged as the top important variables for predicting stunted growth at two years of age.</p>
</abstract>
<kwd-group>
<label>Keywords</label>
<kwd>children’s health</kwd>
<kwd>classification</kwd>
<kwd>ensemble method</kwd>
<kwd>machine learning</kwd>
</kwd-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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