Statistics in medicine
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Statistics in medicine · Aug 2002
Comparative StudyA solution to the problem of separation in logistic regression.
The phenomenon of separation or monotone likelihood is observed in the fitting process of a logistic model if the likelihood converges while at least one parameter estimate diverges to +/- infinity. Separation primarily occurs in small samples with several unbalanced and highly predictive risk factors. ⋯ Corresponding Wald tests and confidence intervals are available but it is shown that penalized likelihood ratio tests and profile penalized likelihood confidence intervals are often preferable. The clear advantage of the procedure over previous options of analysis is impressively demonstrated by the statistical analysis of two cancer studies.