The combined model: A tool for simulating correlated counts with overdispersion

Abstract

The combined model as introduced by Molenberghs et al. (2007, 2010) has been shown to be an appealing tool for modeling not only correlated or overdispersed data but also for data that exhibit both these features. Unlike techniques available in the literature prior to the combined model, which use a single random-effects vector to capture correlation and/or overdispersion, the combined model allows for the correlation and overdispersion features to be modeled by two sets of random effects. In the context of count data, for example, the combined model naturally reduces to the Poisson-normal model, an instance of the generalized linear mixed model in the absence of overdispersion and it also reduces to the negative-binomial model in the absence of correlation. Here, a Poisson model is specified as the parent distribution of the data conditional on a normally distributed random effect at the subject or cluster level and/or a gamma distribution at observation level. Importantly, the development of the combined model and surrounding derivations have relevance well beyond mere data analysis. It so happens that the combined model can also be used to simulate correlated data. If a researcher is interested in comparing marginal models via Monte Carlo simulations, a necessity to generate suitable correlated count data arises. One option is to induce correlation via random effects but calculation of such quantities as the bias is then not straightforward. Since overdispersion and correlation are simultaneous features of longitudinal count data, the combined model presents an appealing framework for generating data to evaluate statistical properties, through a pre-specification of the desired marginal mean (possibly in terms of the covariates and marginal parameters) and a marginal variance-covariance structure. By comparing the marginal mean and variance of the combined model to the desired or pre-specified marginal mean and variance, respectively, the implied hierarchical parameters and the variance-covariance matrices of the normal and Gamma random effects are then derived from which correlated Poisson data are generated. We explore data generation when a random intercept or random intercept and slope model is specified to induce correlation. The data generator, however, allows for any dimension of the random effects although an increase in the random-effects dimension increases the sensitivity of the derived random effects variance-covariance matrix to deviations from positive-definiteness. A simulation study is carried out for the random-intercept model and for the random intercept and slope model, with or without the normal and Gamma random effects. We also pay specific attention to the case of serial correlation.