glm and gam confidence intervals
How can I obtain the values of confidence intervals from gam anf glm objects?
- Vp in the gam object is the covariance matrix of the posterior distribution of the gam parameters under a certian Bayesian model of smoothing, the mean of this distribution is the parameter estimates (coefficients). In the large sample limit the distribution is normal (exactly so for normal errors and identity link). - predict.gam() can give standard errors for any prediction that you ask it to make (on the scale of the linear predictor these are exact and do not, for example, rely on any approximations like the estimators of the smooths being independent). CI's then obtainable from the large sample normal result. - predict.gam() with the type="lpmatrix" will give you the matrix by which the fitted gam coefficients must be multiplied in order to obtain the vector of required predictions (on the scale of the linear predictor). This can be used to obtain the covariance matrix for the predictions directly from the covariance matrix of the parameters. - Confidence intervals for complicated quantities derived from a fitted gam object can be obtained by simulating parameter sets from the multivariate normal with mean given by the fitted coefficients and covariance matrix Vp and re-computing the derived quantity from each. Simon _____________________________________________________________________
Simon Wood simon at stats.gla.ac.uk www.stats.gla.ac.uk/~simon/
Department of Statistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ
Direct telephone: (0)141 330 4530 Fax: (0)141 330 4814