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arXiv 2509.01774stat.MEstat.AP
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聚类数据中解耦依赖关系的广义相关性回归

Generalized Correlation Regression for Disentangling Dependence in Clustered Data

Yibo Wang, Chenlei Leng, Cheng Yong Tang

AI总结:

针对聚类和纵向数据中非高斯响应的复杂相关结构,提出广义相关性回归(GCR)框架,直接将相关性建模为协变量函数并估计边际均值,在提升预测性能的同时揭示多层级依赖驱动因素。

摘要:

聚类和纵向数据在科学研究中普遍存在,涵盖从产前健康项目到临床试验和公共卫生监测等领域。此类数据常涉及非高斯响应——包括二元、分类和计数结果——它们展现出由多级聚类、协变量、过度离散或零膨胀驱动的复杂相关结构。混合效应模型和广义估计方程(GEEs)等传统方法能捕捉部分依赖关系,但往往过于僵化或施加限制性假设,从而削弱了可解释性与预测性能。我们研究了广义相关性回归(GCR),这是一个统一的框架,它将相关性直接建模为可解释协变量的函数,同时估计边际均值。通过应用广义$z$-变换,GCR保证了有效的相关矩阵,适应不平衡的聚类规模,并灵活地将时间、空间或群组成员身份等协变量纳入依赖结构。通过应用于现代产前护理、纵向脚趾甲感染试验和聚类健康计数数据,我们表明GCR不仅在预测性能上优于标准方法,还揭示了在传统建模中被掩盖的家庭、社区和个体层面的依赖驱动因素。这些结果证明了GCR在分析聚类和纵向环境下的二元、计数及分类数据方面具有广泛的应用价值。

英文摘要:

Clustered and longitudinal data are pervasive in scientific studies, from prenatal health programs to clinical trials and public health surveillance. Such data often involve non-Gaussian responses--including binary, categorical, and count outcomes--that exhibit complex correlation structures driven by multilevel clustering, covariates, over-dispersion, or zero inflation. Conventional approaches such as mixed-effects models and generalized estimating equations (GEEs) can capture some of these dependencies, but they are often too rigid or impose restrictive assumptions that limit interpretability and predictive performance. We investigate \emph{generalized correlation regression} (GCR), a unified framework that models correlations directly as functions of interpretable covariates while simultaneously estimating marginal means. By applying a generalized $z$-transformation, GCR guarantees valid correlation matrices, accommodates unbalanced cluster sizes, and flexibly incorporates covariates such as time, space, or group membership into the dependence structure. Through applications to modern prenatal care, a longitudinal toenail infection trial, and clustered health count data, we show that GCR not only achieves superior predictive performance over standard methods, but also reveals family-, community-, and individual-level drivers of dependence that are obscured under conventional modeling. These results demonstrate the broad applied value of GCR for analyzing binary, count, and categorical data in clustered and longitudinal settings.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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