  Growth charts are often more informative when they are customized per
subject, taking into account prior measurements and possibly other covariates
of the subject. We study a global semiparametric quantile regression model that
has the ability to estimate conditional quantiles without the usual
distributional assumptions. The model can be estimated from longitudinal
reference data with irregular measurement times and with some level of
robustness against outliers, and it is also flexible for including covariate
information. We propose a rank score test for large sample inference on
covariates, and develop a new model assessment tool for longitudinal growth
data. Our research indicates that the global model has the potential to be a
very useful tool in conditional growth chart analysis.
