Published January 3, 2022 | Version v1
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The Amoroso distribution as a model of the distribution of blood haemoglobin concentration

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Deviot Institute
  • 2. James Cook University

Description

The distribution of haemoglobin (Hb) concentration is often treated as though it is normal or lognormal, but the issue is
frequently ignored. Part of the problem is that Hb concentration distribution can have negative, zero or positive
skewness. To address this issue, we have shown previously that a normal mixture might be appropriate in some
circumstances. Here we show that the Amoroso distribution is as good as or better than (a) the normal, lognormal,
gamma, Weibull and skew normal distributions and (b) the normal mixture distribution used to describe Hb
concentration. The Amoroso distribution not only has the necessary range of skewness, but, unlike the normal mixture,
it also has a support (x ≥ a) that is more appropriate to Hb concentration.

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