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Member Training: Zero Inflated Models

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A common situation with count outcome variables is there are a lot of zero values.  The Poisson distribution used for modeling count variables takes into account that zeros are often the most common value, but sometimes there are even more zeros than the Poisson distribution can account for.

This can happen in continuous variables as well–most of the distribution follows a beautiful normal distribution, except for the big stack of zeros.

This webinar will explore two ways of modeling zero-inflated data: the Zero Inflated model and the Hurdle model. Both assume there are two different processes: one that affects the probability of a zero and one that affects the actual values, and both allow different sets of predictors for each process.

We’ll explore these models as well as some related models, like Zero-One Inflated Beta models for proportion data.

Note: This training is an exclusive benefit to members of the Statistically Speaking Membership Program and part of the Stat’s Amore Trainings Series. Each Stat’s Amore Training is approximately 90 minutes long.

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Member Training: Count Models

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Count variables are common dependent variables in many fields. For example:

  • Number of diseased trees
  • Number of salamander eggs that hatch
  • Number of crimes committed in a neighborhood

Although they are numerical and look like they should work in linear models, they often don’t.

Not only are they discrete instead of continuous (you can’t have 7.2 eggs hatching!), they can’t go below 0. And since 0 is often the most common value, they’re often highly skewed — so skewed, in fact, that transformations don’t work.

There are, however, generalized linear models that work well for count data. They take into account the specific issues inherent in count data. They should be accessible to anyone who is familiar with linear or logistic regression.

In this webinar, we’ll discuss the different model options for count data, including how to figure out which one works best. We’ll go into detail about how the models are set up, some key statistics, and how to interpret parameter estimates.

Note: This training is an exclusive benefit to members of the Statistically Speaking Membership Program and part of the Stat’s Amore Trainings Series. Each Stat’s Amore Training is approximately 90 minutes long.

About the Instructor

Karen Grace-Martin helps statistics practitioners gain an intuitive understanding of how statistics is applied to real data in research studies.

She has guided and trained researchers through their statistical analysis for over 15 years as a statistical consultant at Cornell University and through The Analysis Factor. She has master’s degrees in both applied statistics and social psychology and is an expert in SPSS and SAS.

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