Geoadditive models
Matt Wand
Harvard School of Public Health
A study into geographical variability of reproductive
health outcomes (e.g. birthweight) in Upper Cape Cod,
Massachusetts, benefits from geostatistical
mapping or kriging. However, also observed are a number
of continuous covariates (e.g. maternal age) that
exhibit pronounced non-linear relationships with the
response variable. To properly account for such effects
we merge kriging with additive models to obtain what we call
geoadditive models. The mergence becomes effortless by expressing
both as linear mixed models. The resulting mixed model
representation for the geoadditive model allows for fitting
and diagnosis using standard methodology and software.
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