IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/amstat/v72y2018i3p239-252.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Structural Equation Models for Dealing With Spatial Confounding

Author

Listed:
  • Hauke Thaden
  • Thomas Kneib

Abstract

In regression analyses of spatially structured data, it is common practice to introduce spatially correlated random effects into the regression model to reduce or even avoid unobserved variable bias in the estimation of other covariate effects. If besides the response the covariates are also spatially correlated, the spatial effects may confound the effect of the covariates or vice versa. In this case, the model fails to identify the true covariate effect due to multicollinearity. For highly collinear continuous covariates, path analysis and structural equation modeling techniques prove to be helpful to disentangle direct covariate effects from indirect covariate effects arising from correlation with other variables. This work discusses the applicability of these techniques in regression setups, where spatial and covariate effects coincide at least partly and classical geoadditive models fail to separate these effects. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

Suggested Citation

  • Hauke Thaden & Thomas Kneib, 2018. "Structural Equation Models for Dealing With Spatial Confounding," The American Statistician, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 72(3), pages 239-252, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:amstat:v:72:y:2018:i:3:p:239-252
    DOI: 10.1080/00031305.2017.1305290
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00031305.2017.1305290
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00031305.2017.1305290?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brian J. Reich & James S. Hodges & Vesna Zadnik, 2006. "Effects of Residual Smoothing on the Posterior of the Fixed Effects in Disease-Mapping Models," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 62(4), pages 1197-1206, December.
    2. Hodges, James S. & Reich, Brian J., 2010. "Adding Spatially-Correlated Errors Can Mess Up the Fixed Effect You Love," The American Statistician, American Statistical Association, vol. 64(4), pages 325-334.
    3. Julian Besag & Jeremy York & Annie Mollié, 1991. "Bayesian image restoration, with two applications in spatial statistics," Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Springer;The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, vol. 43(1), pages 1-20, March.
    4. Ephraim M. Hanks & Erin M. Schliep & Mevin B. Hooten & Jennifer A. Hoeting, 2015. "Restricted spatial regression in practice: geostatistical models, confounding, and robustness under model misspecification," Environmetrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 243-254, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Georgia Papadogeorgou, 2022. "Discussion on “Spatial+: a novel approach to spatial confounding” by Emiko Dupont, Simon N. Wood, and Nicole H. Augustin," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 78(4), pages 1305-1308, December.
    2. Brian J. Reich & Shu Yang & Yawen Guan, 2022. "Discussion on “Spatial+: A novel approach to spatial confounding” by Dupont, Wood, and Augustin," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 78(4), pages 1291-1294, December.
    3. Jennifer F. Bobb & Maricela F. Cruz & Stephen J. Mooney & Adam Drewnowski & David Arterburn & Andrea J. Cook, 2022. "Accounting for spatial confounding in epidemiological studies with individual‐level exposures: An exposure‐penalized spline approach," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 185(3), pages 1271-1293, July.
    4. Isa Marques & Thomas Kneib, 2022. "Discussion on “Spatial+: A novel approach to spatial confounding” by Emiko Dupont, Simon N. Wood, and Nicole H. Augustin," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 78(4), pages 1295-1299, December.
    5. Emiko Dupont & Simon N. Wood & Nicole H. Augustin, 2022. "Spatial+: A novel approach to spatial confounding," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 78(4), pages 1279-1290, December.
    6. Brian J. Reich & Shu Yang & Yawen Guan & Andrew B. Giffin & Matthew J. Miller & Ana Rappold, 2021. "A Review of Spatial Causal Inference Methods for Environmental and Epidemiological Applications," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 89(3), pages 605-634, December.
    7. Carlos García & Zaida Quiroz & Marcos Prates, 2023. "Bayesian spatial quantile modeling applied to the incidence of extreme poverty in Lima–Peru," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 603-621, June.
    8. Douglas R. M. Azevedo & Marcos O. Prates & Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, 2021. "MSPOCK: Alleviating Spatial Confounding in Multivariate Disease Mapping Models," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 26(3), pages 464-491, September.
    9. Isa Marques & Thomas Kneib & Nadja Klein, 2022. "Mitigating spatial confounding by explicitly correlating Gaussian random fields," Environmetrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(5), August.
    10. João B. M. Pereira & Widemberg S. Nobre & Igor F. L. Silva & Alexandra M. Schmidt, 2020. "Spatial confounding in hurdle multilevel beta models: the case of the Brazilian Mathematical Olympics for Public Schools," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 183(3), pages 1051-1073, June.
    11. Marcos O. Prates & Douglas R. M. Azevedo & Ying C. MacNab & Michael R. Willig, 2022. "Non‐separable spatio‐temporal models via transformed multivariate Gaussian Markov random fields," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 71(5), pages 1116-1136, November.
    12. Widemberg S. Nobre & Alexandra M. Schmidt & João B. M. Pereira, 2021. "On the Effects of Spatial Confounding in Hierarchical Models," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 89(2), pages 302-322, August.
    13. Thaden, Hauke & Klein, Nadja & Kneib, Thomas, 2019. "Multivariate effect priors in bivariate semiparametric recursive Gaussian models," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 51-66.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Douglas R. M. Azevedo & Marcos O. Prates & Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, 2021. "MSPOCK: Alleviating Spatial Confounding in Multivariate Disease Mapping Models," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 26(3), pages 464-491, September.
    2. Joshua P. Keller & Adam A. Szpiro, 2020. "Selecting a scale for spatial confounding adjustment," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 183(3), pages 1121-1143, June.
    3. Brian J. Reich & Shu Yang & Yawen Guan & Andrew B. Giffin & Matthew J. Miller & Ana Rappold, 2021. "A Review of Spatial Causal Inference Methods for Environmental and Epidemiological Applications," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 89(3), pages 605-634, December.
    4. Ying C. MacNab, 2018. "Some recent work on multivariate Gaussian Markov random fields," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 27(3), pages 497-541, September.
    5. Emiko Dupont & Simon N. Wood & Nicole H. Augustin, 2022. "Spatial+: A novel approach to spatial confounding," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 78(4), pages 1279-1290, December.
    6. Isa Marques & Thomas Kneib & Nadja Klein, 2022. "Mitigating spatial confounding by explicitly correlating Gaussian random fields," Environmetrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(5), August.
    7. Jennifer F. Bobb & Maricela F. Cruz & Stephen J. Mooney & Adam Drewnowski & David Arterburn & Andrea J. Cook, 2022. "Accounting for spatial confounding in epidemiological studies with individual‐level exposures: An exposure‐penalized spline approach," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 185(3), pages 1271-1293, July.
    8. Duncan Lee & Alastair Rushworth & Sujit K. Sahu, 2014. "A Bayesian localized conditional autoregressive model for estimating the health effects of air pollution," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 70(2), pages 419-429, June.
    9. Soumen Dey & Mohan Delampady & Ravishankar Parameshwaran & N. Samba Kumar & Arjun Srivathsa & K. Ullas Karanth, 2017. "Bayesian Methods for Estimating Animal Abundance at Large Spatial Scales Using Data from Multiple Sources," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 22(2), pages 111-139, June.
    10. Janine B. Illian & David F. R. P. Burslem, 2017. "Improving the usability of spatial point process methodology: an interdisciplinary dialogue between statistics and ecology," AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis, Springer;German Statistical Society, vol. 101(4), pages 495-520, October.
    11. Trevor J. Hefley & Mevin B. Hooten & Ephraim M. Hanks & Robin E. Russell & Daniel P. Walsh, 2017. "The Bayesian Group Lasso for Confounded Spatial Data," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 22(1), pages 42-59, March.
    12. João B. M. Pereira & Widemberg S. Nobre & Igor F. L. Silva & Alexandra M. Schmidt, 2020. "Spatial confounding in hurdle multilevel beta models: the case of the Brazilian Mathematical Olympics for Public Schools," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 183(3), pages 1051-1073, June.
    13. Garritt L. Page & Yajun Liu & Zhuoqiong He & Donchu Sun, 2017. "Estimation and Prediction in the Presence of Spatial Confounding for Spatial Linear Models," Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics;Finnish Statistical Society;Norwegian Statistical Association;Swedish Statistical Association, vol. 44(3), pages 780-797, September.
    14. Widemberg S. Nobre & Alexandra M. Schmidt & João B. M. Pereira, 2021. "On the Effects of Spatial Confounding in Hierarchical Models," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 89(2), pages 302-322, August.
    15. Duncan Lee & Richard Mitchell, 2013. "Locally adaptive spatial smoothing using conditional auto-regressive models," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 62(4), pages 593-608, August.
    16. G. Vicente & T. Goicoa & P. Fernandez‐Rasines & M. D. Ugarte, 2020. "Crime against women in India: unveiling spatial patterns and temporal trends of dowry deaths in the districts of Uttar Pradesh," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 183(2), pages 655-679, February.
    17. K. Shuvo Bakar & Nicholas Biddle & Philip Kokic & Huidong Jin, 2020. "A Bayesian spatial categorical model for prediction to overlapping geographical areas in sample surveys," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 183(2), pages 535-563, February.
    18. Wilson J. Wright & Peter N. Neitlich & Alyssa E. Shiel & Mevin B. Hooten, 2022. "Mechanistic spatial models for heavy metal pollution," Environmetrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(8), December.
    19. Ephraim M. Hanks, 2017. "Modeling Spatial Covariance Using the Limiting Distribution of Spatio-Temporal Random Walks," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 112(518), pages 497-507, April.
    20. Brian J. Reich & James S. Hodges, 2008. "Modeling Longitudinal Spatial Periodontal Data: A Spatially Adaptive Model with Tools for Specifying Priors and Checking Fit," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 64(3), pages 790-799, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:amstat:v:72:y:2018:i:3:p:239-252. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/UTAS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.