ArticleThe American journal of drug and alcohol abuse2015
The importance of distribution-choice in modeling substance use data: a comparison of negative binomial, beta binomial, and zero-inflated distributions.
Article in The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
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29 citing papers in PubMed.
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- HealthCall delivered via smartphone to reduce co-occurring drug and alcohol use in HIV-infected adults: A randomized pilot trial.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2017Trial
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- Young people's perspectives on integrating physical activity interventions into youth substance use treatment practice: a mixed-methods study.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2025Article
- A Bayesian model for repeated cross-sectional epidemic prevalence survey data.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Telehealth engagement and treatment strategies for adults living with alcohol use disorder: A sequential multiple assignment randomized trial protocol.Contemporary clinical trials · 2025Article
- Social network alcohol use is associated with individual-level alcohol use among Black sexually minoritized men and gender-expansive people: Findings from the Neighborhoods and Networks (N2) cohort study.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Article
- Explaining "U-shaped" distributions of population substance use with a simple computational approach.Journal of artificial societies and social simulation : JASSS · 2025Article
- A MARGINAL STRUCTURAL MODEL FOR PARTIAL COMPLIANCE IN SMARTS.The annals of applied statistics · 2024Article
- Preventing sexual violence among high school students through norms correction and bystander intervention: A school-based cluster trial of Your Voice Your View.Journal of community psychology · 2023Article
- Prospective Associations Between Anxiety Sensitivity, Distress Intolerance, Depressive Symptoms, and Indices of Alcohol and Cannabis Use Among Veterans.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2023Article
- High suicidality predicts overdose events among people with substance use disorder: A latent class analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Prospective associations between sleep disturbances and cannabis use among Veterans: A behavioral economic approach.Addictive behaviors · 2022Article
- The influence of adiposity on the interactions between strength, physical function and cognition among older adults in the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab) study.BMC geriatrics · 2022Article
- Examining the differential effects of latent impulsivity factors on substance use outcomes in African American men.Addictive behaviors · 2021Article
- MODELING MICROBIAL ABUNDANCES AND DYSBIOSIS WITH BETA-BINOMIAL REGRESSION.The annals of applied statistics · 2020Article
- Prescribing Associated with High-Risk Opioid Exposures Among Non-cancer Chronic Users of Opioid Analgesics: a Social Network Analysis.Journal of general internal medicine · 2019Article
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Abstract
backgroundIt is important to correctly understand the associations among addiction to multiple drugs and between co-occurring substance use and psychiatric disorders. Substance-specific outcomes (e.g. number of days used cannabis) have distributional characteristics which range widely depending on the substance and the sample being evaluated.
objectivesWe recommend a four-part strategy for determining the appropriate distribution for modeling substance use data. We demonstrate this strategy by comparing the model fit and resulting inferences from applying four different distributions to model use of substances that range greatly in the prevalence and frequency of their use.
methodsUsing Timeline Followback (TLFB) data from a previously-published study, we used negative binomial, beta-binomial and their zero-inflated counterparts to model proportion of days during treatment of cannabis, cigarettes, alcohol, and opioid use. The fit for each distribution was evaluated with statistical model selection criteria, visual plots and a comparison of the resulting inferences.
resultsWe demonstrate the feasibility and utility of modeling each substance individually and show that no single distribution provides the best fit for all substances. Inferences regarding use of each substance and associations with important clinical variables were not consistent across models and differed by substance.
conclusionThus, the distribution chosen for modeling substance use must be carefully selected and evaluated because it may impact the resulting conclusions. Furthermore, the common procedure of aggregating use across different substances may not be ideal.
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