Computational Prediction of Subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus Status in Malawi Using a Random Forest Approach

An individual’s subjective judgment about his or her Human Immunodeficiency Virus status depends on certain factors, behavioral, health, and sociodemographic alike. This paper aims to develop a model with good accuracy for predicting subjective HIV infection status using the random forest approach....

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Main Author: Sally Sonia Simmons
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2019-01-01
Series:AIDS Research and Treatment
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/5849183
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author Sally Sonia Simmons
author_facet Sally Sonia Simmons
author_sort Sally Sonia Simmons
collection DOAJ
description An individual’s subjective judgment about his or her Human Immunodeficiency Virus status depends on certain factors, behavioral, health, and sociodemographic alike. This paper aims to develop a model with good accuracy for predicting subjective HIV infection status using the random forest approach. A total of 12,796 responses of Malawians over a 12-year period were assessed. Fourteen risk factors including behavioral, health, and sociodemographic information were analysed as potential predictors of subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection status in the general population and thirteen behavioral, health, and sociodemographic information were analysed among males and females. The random forest approach was adopted to build a comprehensive model comprising 14 risk factors in Malawi. It was revealed that age, worries about infection, and health rate were the most significant predictors as compared to use of condoms, marital status, and education which were the least important predictors of subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus status in Malawi. However, the importance of infidelity on the part of a spouse and marital status as predictors of subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus status alternated among males and females. The importance of infidelity and marital status was relatively high among females than among males. The model achieved a prediction accuracy of about 97%–99% measured by c-statistic with jack-knife cross validation and verified by Mathews correlation coefficient. As a result, RF based model has great potential to be an effective approach for analysing subjective health status.
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spelling doaj-art-b8eba2c6970d4a7884d85dbaed4d5aa32025-08-20T03:22:48ZengWileyAIDS Research and Treatment2090-12402090-12592019-01-01201910.1155/2019/58491835849183Computational Prediction of Subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus Status in Malawi Using a Random Forest ApproachSally Sonia Simmons0Institute of Demography, National Research University–Higher School of Economics, Myasnitskaya, 9/11, Moscow 101000, RussiaAn individual’s subjective judgment about his or her Human Immunodeficiency Virus status depends on certain factors, behavioral, health, and sociodemographic alike. This paper aims to develop a model with good accuracy for predicting subjective HIV infection status using the random forest approach. A total of 12,796 responses of Malawians over a 12-year period were assessed. Fourteen risk factors including behavioral, health, and sociodemographic information were analysed as potential predictors of subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection status in the general population and thirteen behavioral, health, and sociodemographic information were analysed among males and females. The random forest approach was adopted to build a comprehensive model comprising 14 risk factors in Malawi. It was revealed that age, worries about infection, and health rate were the most significant predictors as compared to use of condoms, marital status, and education which were the least important predictors of subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus status in Malawi. However, the importance of infidelity on the part of a spouse and marital status as predictors of subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus status alternated among males and females. The importance of infidelity and marital status was relatively high among females than among males. The model achieved a prediction accuracy of about 97%–99% measured by c-statistic with jack-knife cross validation and verified by Mathews correlation coefficient. As a result, RF based model has great potential to be an effective approach for analysing subjective health status.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/5849183
spellingShingle Sally Sonia Simmons
Computational Prediction of Subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus Status in Malawi Using a Random Forest Approach
AIDS Research and Treatment
title Computational Prediction of Subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus Status in Malawi Using a Random Forest Approach
title_full Computational Prediction of Subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus Status in Malawi Using a Random Forest Approach
title_fullStr Computational Prediction of Subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus Status in Malawi Using a Random Forest Approach
title_full_unstemmed Computational Prediction of Subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus Status in Malawi Using a Random Forest Approach
title_short Computational Prediction of Subjective Human Immunodeficiency Virus Status in Malawi Using a Random Forest Approach
title_sort computational prediction of subjective human immunodeficiency virus status in malawi using a random forest approach
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/5849183
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