Hi!
I have some difficulties to properly interpret a gamma shared frailty
model, and I hope someone could help.
The idea is to analyse the time-to-first-service in cattle from 200
different farms. Every cow is measured only once, but cows from the same
farm are correlated. The main predictor variable is the type of farm (so it
is measured on the group level) and potential confounding factors are
measured on the cow-level (breed, 2 levels).
For the analysis I have used an Accelerated failure time model with Weibull-
distributed failure times and a gamma-shared frailty effect. In STATA this
looks like:
xi: streg i.type i.breed, d(weibull) frailty(gamma) shared(farm) time
Now, the question:
I would like to predict the length of the period when the first, second and
third quartile of the cows are inseminated (fail) in both farm-types.
For the median of a cow in farm-type1 I would use:
[-ln(0.5)]^(1/e(aux_p))*exp(_b[_cons]+_b_[I_type1])
which should work for Weibull-AFT models without frailty (Hosmer and
Lemeshow).
But: can I use the 'normal' formula and ignore the estimated shared frailty
(theta=0.3)? Is that a prediction for a farm with zero-frailty?
Thanks for your help!
Christian
--
\ Christian Schnier
\ University of Helsinki
\ Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
\ Department of Clinical Veterinary Sciences
| P.O.Box 57 (H�meentie 57)
| 00014 University of Helsinki
| Finland
\ Phone: +358 9 191 49571
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In 1872 Francis Galton published his 'Statistical Inquiries into the
Efficacy of Prayers'. He examined the longevity of royal families -
something prayed for on the national level. Galton found that, if anything,
ROYALTY FARED WORSE than did people of humbler birth.
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