Skip Navigation

Biometrika 2006 93(4):1003-1010; doi:10.1093/biomet/93.4.1003
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Tchetgen, E. J.
Right arrow Articles by Coull, B. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
 Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 2006 Biometrika Trust

Miscellanea

A diagnostic test for the mixing distribution in a generalised linear mixed model

Eric J. Tchetgen and Brent A. Coull

Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, U.S.A. etchetge{at}hsph.harvard.edu, bcoull{at}hsph.harvard.edu


   Abstract

We introduce a diagnostic test for the mixing distribution in a generalised linear mixed model. The test is based on the difference between the marginal maximum likelihood and conditional maximum likelihood estimators of a subset of the fixed effects in the model. We derive the asymptotic variance of this difference, and propose a test statistic that has a limiting chi-squared distribution under the null hypothesis that the mixing distribution is correctly specified. This strategy uses an idea presented by Hausman (1978), who considered analogous tests for the linear mixed model. An important advantage of the methods outlined here is that the resulting diagnostic test is easily implemented in commercial software. We illustrate the method by applying it to data from a clinical trial investigating the effect of hormonal contraceptives in women.

Key Words: Clustered binary data; Conditional maximum likelihood; Marginal maximum likelihood; Specification test.


Received September 2004. Revised April 2006.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.