Latent Multivariate Log-Gamma Models for High-Dimensional Multi-Type Responses with Application to Daily Fine Particulate Matter and Mortality Counts

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Bayesian hierarchical model for high-dimensional multi-type responses, effectively estimating and analyzing correlated continuous and count data related to PM2.5 pollution and mortality, aiding public health policy.

Contribution

The paper develops a novel multivariate log-gamma Bayesian model that handles different response types and high-dimensional data, with dimension reduction for improved computation and estimation accuracy.

Findings

Model accurately estimates PM2.5 and mortality counts.

Improves estimation precision and handles missing data.

Demonstrates effectiveness through simulation and CDC data analysis.

Abstract

Tracking and estimating Daily Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) is very important as it has been shown that PM2.5 is directly related to mortality related to lungs, cardiovascular system, and stroke. That is, high values of PM2.5 constitute a public health problem in the US, and it is important that we precisely estimate PM2.5 to aid in public policy decisions. Thus, we propose a Bayesian hierarchical model for high-dimensional "multi-type" responses. By "multi-type" responses we mean a collection of correlated responses that have different distributional assumptions (e.g., continuous skewed observations, and count-valued observations). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) database provides counts of mortalities related to PM2.5 and daily averaged PM2.5 which are both treated as responses in our analysis. Our model capitalizes on the shared conjugate structure between the Weibull (to model PM2.5), Poisson (to model diseases mortalities), and multivariate log-gamma distributions, and we use dimension reduction to aid with computation. Our model can also be used to improve the precision of estimates and estimate values at undisclosed/missing counties. We provide a simulation study to illustrate the performance of the model, and give an in-depth analysis of the CDC dataset.