Learning Bayesian networks from demographic and health survey data.

Child mortality from preventable diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea in low and middle-income countries remains a serious global challenge. We combine knowledge with available Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from India, to construct Causal Bayesian Networks (CBNs) and investigate the f...

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Published in:Journal of Biomedical Informatics Vol. 113
Main Authors: Kitson, Neville Kenneth, Constantinou, Anthony C.
Format: research Journal Article
Published: Academic Press Inc. Jan2021
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Jan2021
      vid: 113
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      pub: Academic Press Inc.
      place: Burlington, Massachusetts
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        10.1016/j.jbi.2020.103588
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        atl: Learning Bayesian networks from demographic and health survey data.
      aug:
        au:
          Kitson, Neville Kenneth
          Constantinou, Anthony C.
        affil: Bayesian Artificial Intelligence Research Lab, Risk and Information Management (RIM) Research Group, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), London E1 4NS, UK
      sug:
        subj:
          Knowledge Bases
          Algorithms
          Human
          Probability
          Demography
          Sample Size
          Child
          Comparative Studies
          Multicenter Studies
          Evaluation Research
          Validation Studies
          Scales
          Child: 6-12 years
      ab: Child mortality from preventable diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea in low and middle-income countries remains a serious global challenge. We combine knowledge with available Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from India, to construct Causal Bayesian Networks (CBNs) and investigate the factors associated with childhood diarrhoea. We make use of freeware tools to learn the graphical structure of the DHS data with score-based, constraint-based, and hybrid structure learning algorithms. We investigate the effect of missing values, sample size, and knowledge-based constraints on each of the structure learning algorithms and assess their accuracy with multiple scoring functions. Weaknesses in the survey methodology and data available, as well as the variability in the CBNs generated by the different algorithms, mean that it is not possible to learn a definitive CBN from data. However, knowledge-based constraints are found to be useful in reducing the variation in the graphs produced by the different algorithms, and produce graphs which are more reflective of the likely influential relationships in the data. Furthermore, valuable insights are gained into the performance and characteristics of the structure learning algorithms. Two score-based algorithms in particular, TABU and FGES, demonstrate many desirable qualities; (a) with sufficient data, they produce a graph which is similar to the reference graph, (b) they are relatively insensitive to missing values, and (c) behave well with knowledge-based constraints. The results provide a basis for further investigation of the DHS data and for a deeper understanding of the behaviour of the structure learning algorithms when applied to real-world settings.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
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        research
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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