Multivariable Model - Building: A Pragmatic Approach to Regression Analysis based on Fractional Polynomials for Modelling Continuous Variables

Multivariable regression models are of fundamental importance in all areas of science in which empirical data must be analyzed. This book proposes a systematic approach to building such models based on standard principles of statistical modeling. The main emphasis is on the fractional polynomial method for modeling the influence of continuous variables in a multivariable context, a topic for which there is no standard approach. Existing options range from very simple step functions to highly complex adaptive methods such as multivariate splines with many knots and penalisation. This new approach, developed in part by the authors over the last decade, is a compromise which promotes interpretable, comprehensible and transportable models.