Assessing the goodness-of-fit of the Laird and Ware model – an example: the Jimma Infant Survival Differential Longitudinal Study
✍ Scribed by Emmanuel Lesaffre; Makonnen Asefa; Geert Verbeke
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 204 KB
- Volume
- 18
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0277-6715
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The Jimma Infant Survival Differential Longitudinal Study is an Ethiopian study, set up to establish risk factors affecting infant survival and to investigate socio-economic, maternal and infant-rearing factors that contribute most to the child's early survival. Here, a subgroup of about 1500 children born in Jimma town is examined for their first year's weight gain. Of special interest is the impact of certain cultural practices like uvulectomy, milk teeth extraction and butter swallowing, on child's weight gain; these have never been thoroughly investigated in any study. In this context, the linear mixed model (Laird and Ware) is employed. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the practical issues when constructing the longitudinal model. Recently developed diagnostics will be used herefor. Finally, special attention will be paid to the two-stage interpretation of the linear mixed model.