23  Body Fat: Case Study in Linear Modeling

Statistical Analysis Attack

23.1 Descriptive Statistics

Code
getHdata(bodyfat)
d   <- bodyfat
dd  <- datadist(d); options(datadist='dd')
des <- describe(d)
sparkline::sparkline(0)   # load jQuery javascript for sparklines
Code
print(des, which='continuous')
d Descriptives
15 Continous Variables of 15 Variables, 249 Observations
Variable Label Units n Missing Distinct Info Mean pMedian Gini |Δ| Quantiles
.05 .10 .25 .50 .75 .90 .95
density Density g/cm3 249 0 216 1.000 1.055 1.055 0.02119 1.026 1.032 1.041 1.055 1.070 1.080 1.085
fat Body Fat Proportion 249 0 174 1.000 0.1925 0.1915 0.09364 0.0630 0.0850 0.1250 0.1920 0.2530 0.2992 0.3248
age Age years 249 0 51 0.999 44.95 44.5 14.39 25.0 27.0 36.0 43.0 54.0 63.2 67.0
weight Weight kg 249 0 194 1.000 81.39 80.64 14.27 62.67 67.17 72.30 80.24 89.44 98.52 102.58
height Height cm 249 0 47 0.999 178.7 178.8 7.541 167.9 170.7 174.0 178.4 183.5 187.3 189.2
neck Neck Circumference cm 249 0 89 1.000 38.03 38 2.66 34.34 35.20 36.40 38.00 39.50 40.92 41.86
chest Chest Circumference cm 249 0 171 1.000 100.9 100.4 9.241 89.20 91.36 94.60 99.70 105.30 112.32 116.52
abdomen Abdomen Circumference at Umbilicus cm 249 0 183 1.000 92.67 92.1 11.73 77.60 79.68 85.20 91.00 99.20 105.76 110.88
hip Hip Circumference cm 249 0 150 1.000 99.94 99.5 7.422 89.36 92.06 95.60 99.30 103.50 108.64 111.86
thigh Thigh Circumference cm 249 0 137 1.000 59.45 59.2 5.619 51.52 53.24 56.10 59.00 62.30 65.84 68.46
knee Knee Circumference cm 249 0 89 1.000 38.61 38.55 2.638 34.90 35.68 37.10 38.50 39.90 41.70 42.66
ankle Ankle Circumference cm 249 0 60 0.999 23.12 23 1.694 21.00 21.50 22.00 22.80 24.00 24.82 25.46
biceps Extended Biceps Circumference cm 249 0 103 1.000 32.32 32.25 3.363 27.74 28.80 30.30 32.10 34.40 36.24 37.20
forearm Forearm Circumference cm 249 0 76 1.000 28.69 28.7 2.235 25.74 26.28 27.30 28.80 30.00 31.10 31.76
wrist Wrist Circumference cm 249 0 44 0.998 18.25 18.25 1.039 16.84 17.08 17.60 18.30 18.80 19.40 19.80
Code
plot(varclus(~ . - fat, data=d))  # remove Y from clustering

Do a redundancy analysis

Code
# Don't allow response variable to be used
r <- redun(~ . -fat, data=d)
r

Redundancy Analysis

~density + age + weight + height + neck + chest + abdomen + hip + 
    thigh + knee + ankle + biceps + forearm + wrist
<environment: 0x1188e51e0>

n: 249  p: 14   nk: 3 

Number of NAs:   0 

Transformation of target variables forced to be linear

R-squared cutoff: 0.9   Type: ordinary 

R^2 with which each variable can be predicted from all other variables:

density     age  weight  height    neck   chest abdomen     hip   thigh    knee 
  0.754   0.599   0.983   0.747   0.786   0.918   0.949   0.936   0.886   0.800 
  ankle  biceps forearm   wrist 
  0.497   0.742   0.591   0.767 

Rendundant variables:

weight abdomen


Predicted from variables:

density age height neck chest hip thigh knee ankle biceps forearm wrist

  Variable Deleted   R^2 R^2 after later deletions
1           weight 0.983                     0.981
2          abdomen 0.944                          
Code
# Show strongest relationships among transformed predictors
r2describe(r$scores, nvmax=4)

Strongest Predictors of Each Variable With Cumulative R^2

density
abdomen (0.626) + weight (0.696) + wrist (0.707) + forearm (0.715)

age
density (0.076) + thigh (0.256) + wrist (0.406) + abdomen (0.459)

weight
hip (0.888) + chest (0.927) + height (0.96) + neck (0.968)

height
knee (0.247) + density (0.363) + weight (0.429) + abdomen (0.529)

neck
weight (0.69) + wrist (0.728) + height (0.741) + hip (0.755)

chest
abdomen (0.836) + weight (0.868) + hip (0.879) + height (0.893)

abdomen
chest (0.836) + density (0.893) + hip (0.927) + age (0.937)

hip
weight (0.888) + thigh (0.91) + abdomen (0.918) + neck (0.923)

thigh
hip (0.795) + age (0.821) + biceps (0.843) + knee (0.853)

knee
weight (0.721) + ankle (0.734) + thigh (0.745) + height (0.758)

ankle
weight (0.37) + abdomen (0.41) + wrist (0.435) + knee (0.453)

biceps
weight (0.633) + forearm (0.684) + thigh (0.7) + neck (0.707)

forearm
biceps (0.452) + wrist (0.491) + age (0.508) + neck (0.518)

wrist
neck (0.546) + ankle (0.604) + age (0.636) + height (0.66)

weight could be dispensed with but we will keep it for historical reasons.

23.2 Learn Predictor Transformations and Interactions From Simple Model

  • Compare AICs of 5 competing models
  • It is safe to use AIC to select from among perhaps 3 models so we are pushing the envelope here
Code
AIC(ols(fat ~ rcs(age, 4) + rcs(height, 4) * rcs(abdomen, 4), data=d))
     d.f. 
-825.0106 
Code
AIC(ols(fat ~ rcs(age, 4) + rcs(log(height), 4) + rcs(log(abdomen), 4), data=d))
     d.f. 
-833.7197 
Code
AIC(ols(fat ~ rcs(age, 4) + log(height) + log(abdomen), data=d))
     d.f. 
-834.4334 
Code
AIC(ols(fat ~ age * (log(height) + log(abdomen)), data=d))
     d.f. 
-833.6138 
Code
AIC(ols(fat ~ age + height + abdomen, data=d))
     d.f. 
-822.2701 
  • Third model has lowest AIC
  • Will use its structure when adding other predictors
  • Check contant variance and normality assumptions on the winning small model
Code
f <- ols(fat ~ rcs(age, 4) + log(height) + log(abdomen), data=d)
f

Linear Regression Model

ols(formula = fat ~ rcs(age, 4) + log(height) + log(abdomen), 
    data = d)
Model Likelihood
Ratio Test
Discrimination
Indexes
Obs 249 LR χ2 308.62 R2 0.710
σ 0.0446 d.f. 5 R2adj 0.704
d.f. 243 Pr(>χ2) 0.0000 g 0.077

Residuals

       Min         1Q     Median         3Q        Max 
-0.1206613 -0.0331328 -0.0009029  0.0316693  0.0910751 
β S.E. t Pr(>|t|)
Intercept  -0.3810  0.4142 -0.92 0.3586
age   0.0019  0.0010 1.88 0.0610
age'  -0.0053  0.0032 -1.67 0.0960
age''   0.0198  0.0124 1.60 0.1105
height  -0.4357  0.0823 -5.30 <0.0001
abdomen   0.6128  0.0271 22.57 <0.0001
Code
pdx <- function() {
  r <- resid(f)
  w <- data.frame(r=r, fitted=fitted(f))
  p1 <- ggplot(w, aes(x=fitted, y=r)) + geom_point()
  p2 <- ggplot(w, aes(sample=r)) + stat_qq() +
        geom_abline(intercept=mean(r), slope=sd(r))
  gridExtra::grid.arrange(p1, p2, ncol=2)
}
pdx()

  • Normal and constant variance (across predicted values) on the original fat scale
  • Usually would need to transform a [0,1]-restricted variable
  • Luckily no predicted values outside [0,1] in the dataset
  • Will keep a linear model on untransformed fat

23.3 Assess Predictive Discrimination Added by Other Size Variables

Code
g <- ols(fat ~ rcs(age, 4) + log(height) + log(abdomen) + log(weight) + log(neck) +
         log(chest) + log(hip) + log(thigh) + log(knee) + log(ankle) + log(biceps) +
         log(forearm) + log(wrist), data=d)
AIC(g)
     d.f. 
-849.9813 
  • By AIC the large model is better
  • \(R^{2}_\text{adj}\) went from 0.704 to 0.733
  • How does this translate to improvement in median prediction error?
Code
median(abs(resid(f)))
[1] 0.03283904
Code
median(abs(resid(g)))
[1] 0.02995479
  • There is a reduction of 0.003 in the typical prediction error
  • Proportion of fat varies from 0.06 - 0.32 (0.05 quantile to 0.95 quantile)
  • Additional variables are not worth it
  • A typical prediction error of 0.03 makes the model fit for purpose

23.4 Model Interpretation

  • Image plot
  • Nomogram
Code
p <- Predict(f, height, abdomen)
bplot(p, ylabrot=90)

Code
plot(nomogram(f), lplab='Fat Fraction')