Zero-inflated negative binomial regression is for modeling count variables with
excessive zeros and it is usually for over-dispersed count outcome variables.
Furthermore, theory suggests that the excess zeros are generated by a separate
process from the count values and that the excess zeros can be modeled
independently.

Please note: The
purpose of this page is to show how to use various data analysis commands.  It
does not cover all aspects of the research process which researchers are
expected to do.  In particular, it does not cover data cleaning and checking,
verification of assumptions, model diagnostics or potential follow-up analyses.

This page was updated using SAS 9.2.3.

Examples of Zero-inflated Negative Binomial Regression

Example 1. School administrators study the attendance behavior of high school
juniors at two schools. Predictors of the number of days of absence include
gender of the student and standardized test scores in math and language arts.

Example 2. The state wildlife biologists want to model how many fish are
being caught by fishermen at a state park. Visitors are asked how long they
stayed, how many people were in the group, were there children in the group and
how many fish were caught. Some visitors do not fish, but there is no data on
whether a person fished or not. Some visitors who did fish did not catch any
fish so there are excess zeros in the data because of the people that did not
fish.

Description of the Data

Let’s pursue Example 2 from above using the dataset
fish.sas7bdat.

We have data on 250 groups that went to a park.  Each group was questioned
about how many fish they caught (count), how many children were in the
group (child), how many people were in the group (persons), and
whether or not they brought a camper to the park (camper).

In addition to predicting the number of fish caught, there is interest in predicting
the existence of excess zeros, i.e., the probability that a group caught zero
fish. We will use the variables child, persons, and camper
in our model.

Let’s look at the data.

proc means data = fish mean std min max var;
  var count child persons;
run;

The MEANS Procedure

Variable            Mean         Std Dev         Minimum         Maximum        Variance
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
count          3.2960000      11.6350281               0     149.0000000     135.3738795
child          0.6840000       0.8503153               0       3.0000000       0.7230361
persons        2.5280000       1.1127303       1.0000000       4.0000000       1.2381687
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ods graphics  / width=4in height=3in border=off;
proc sgplot data = fish;
  histogram count /binwidth=1;
run;
ods graphics off;

proc freq data = fish;
  tables child persons camper;
run;

                                  Cumulative    
child    Frequency     Percent     Frequency      Percent
----------------------------------------------------------
    0         132       52.80           132        52.80
    1          75       30.00           207        82.80
    2          33       13.20           240        96.00
    3          10        4.00           250       100.00


                                    Cumulative    Cumulative
persons    Frequency     Percent     Frequency      Percent
------------------------------------------------------------
      1          57       22.80            57        22.80
      2          70       28.00           127        50.80
      3          57       22.80           184        73.60
      4          66       26.40           250       100.00


                                   Cumulative    Cumulative
camper    Frequency     Percent     Frequency      Percent
-----------------------------------------------------------
     0         103       41.20           103        41.20
     1         147       58.80           250       100.00

proc means data = fish mean var n nway;
  class camper;
  var count;
run;

                  N
      camper    Obs            Mean        Variance      N
----------------------------------------------------------
           0    103       1.5242718      21.0557777    103

           1    147       4.5374150     212.4009878    147
----------------------------------------------------------

We can see from the table of descriptive statistics above that the variance
of the outcome variable is quite large relative to the means. This might be an indication of over-dispersion.

Analysis methods you might consider

Before we show how you can analyze this with a zero-inflated negative binomial analysis, let’s
consider some other methods that you might use.

SAS zero-inflated negative binomial analysis using proc genmod

A zero-inflated model assumes that zero outcome is due to two different
processes. For instance, in the example of fishing presented here,  the two
processes are that a subject has gone fishing vs. not gone fishing. If not gone fishing, the only
outcome possible is zero. If gone fishing, it is then  a  count
process. The two parts of the a zero-inflated model are a binary model, usually
a logit model to model which of the two processes the zero outcome is associated
with and a count model, in this case, a negative binomial model, to model the
count process. The expected count is expressed as a combination of the two
processes. Taking the example of fishing again, E(#of fish caught=k) = prob(not
gone fishing )*0 + prob(gone fishing)*E(y=k|gone  fishing).

Now let’s build up our model. We are going to use the variables child and camper to model the
count in the part of negative binomial model  and the variable persons
in the logit part of the model. The SAS commands are shown below. We treat variable camper as a categorical variable by
including it in the class statement. This will also make the post
estimations easier. In this particular example, we also explicitly want to use
camper = 0 as the reference group. To this end, we sort the data in descending
order and use the order= option in procgenmod to force it
to take camper = 0 as the reference group.

proc sort data = fish;
  by descending camper;
run;
proc genmod data = fish order=data;
  class camper;
  model count = child camper /dist=zinb;
  zeromodel persons;
run;

The GENMOD Procedure

                  Model Information

Data Set                                    WORK.FISH
Distribution          Zero Inflated Negative Binomial
Link Function                                     Log
Dependent Variable                              count


Number of Observations Read         250
Number of Observations Used         250

  Class Level Information

Class       Levels    Values

camper           2    1 0


             Criteria For Assessing Goodness Of Fit

Criterion                     DF           Value        Value/DF

Deviance                                865.7818
Scaled Deviance                         865.7818
Pearson Chi-Square           245        534.2944          2.1808
Scaled Pearson X2            245        534.2944          2.1808
Log Likelihood                         -432.8909
Full Log Likelihood                    -432.8909
AIC (smaller is better)                 877.7818
AICC (smaller is better)                878.1275
BIC (smaller is better)                 898.9106


Algorithm converged.

                       Analysis Of Maximum Likelihood Parameter Estimates

                                     Standard     Wald 95% Confidence          Wald
Parameter          DF    Estimate       Error           Limits           Chi-Square    Pr > ChiSq

Intercept           1      1.3710      0.2561      0.8691      1.8730         28.66        <.0001
child               1     -1.5153      0.1956     -1.8986     -1.1319         60.02        <.0001
camper        1     1      0.8791      0.2693      0.3513      1.4068         10.66        0.0011
camper        0     0      0.0000      0.0000      0.0000      0.0000           .           .
Dispersion          1      2.6788      0.4713      1.8974      3.7818


NOTE: The negative binomial dispersion parameter was estimated by maximum
      likelihood.

      Analysis Of Maximum Likelihood Zero Inflation Parameter Estimates

                         Standard       Wald 95%             Wald
Parameter  DF  Estimate     Error   Confidence Limits  Chi-Square  Pr > ChiSq

Intercept   1    1.6031    0.8365   -0.0364    3.2426        3.67      0.0553
persons     1   -1.6666    0.6793   -2.9979   -0.3352        6.02      0.0142

The output has a few components which are explained below.

Looking through the results of regression parameters we see the following:

Now, let’s try to understand the model better by using some of the post
estimation commands. First off, we examine the
distribution of the predicted probability of being an excessive zero by the number of persons in the group. We can see that the larger
the group, the smaller the probability, meaning the more likely that the person
went fishing.

proc means data = outzinb nway mean;
  class persons;
  var p0;
run;

                  N
     persons    Obs            Mean
-----------------------------------
           1     57       0.4841404

           2     70       0.1505843

           3     57       0.0324022

           4     66       0.0062858
-----------------------------------

Since we have saved our model previous as m1 previously, we use proc plm  to get the predicted
number of fish caught, comparing campers with non-campers given different number
of children.  To get the predict counts we have used the option
ilink (for inverse link).

proc plm source = m1;
  lsmeans camper /at child=(0) ilink;
  lsmeans camper /at child=(1) ilink;
  lsmeans camper /at child=(2) ilink;
  lsmeans camper /at child=(3) ilink;
run;

                                    camper Least Squares Means

                                                                                          Standard
                                           Standard                                       Error of
camper     child    persons    Estimate       Error    z Value    Pr > |z|        Mean        Mean

1           0.00       2.53      2.2501      0.2037      11.05      <.0001      9.4887      1.9326
0           0.00       2.53      1.3710      0.2561       5.35      <.0001      3.9395      1.0090

                                                                                          Standard
                                           Standard                                       Error of
camper     child    persons    Estimate       Error    z Value    Pr > |z|        Mean        Mean

1           1.00       2.53      0.7348      0.1932       3.80      0.0001      2.0852      0.4028
0           1.00       2.53     -0.1442      0.2342      -0.62      0.5381      0.8657      0.2028

                                                                                          Standard
                                           Standard                                       Error of
camper     child    persons    Estimate       Error    z Value    Pr > |z|        Mean        Mean

1           2.00       2.53     -0.7804      0.3311      -2.36      0.0184      0.4582      0.1517
0           2.00       2.53     -1.6595      0.3474      -4.78      <.0001      0.1902     0.06608

                                                                                          Standard
                                           Standard                                       Error of
camper     child    persons    Estimate       Error    z Value    Pr > |z|        Mean        Mean

1           3.00       2.53     -2.2957      0.5084      -4.52      <.0001      0.1007     0.05120
0           3.00       2.53     -3.1747      0.5128      -6.19      <.0001     0.04181     0.02144

Notice by default, SAS fixes the value of the predictor variable persons
at its mean value. Next, we can also ask procplm to plot the fitted
values by camper variable.

ods graphics  / width=4in height=3in border=off;
proc plm source = m1;
  effectplot slicefit (sliceby= camper);
run;
ods graphics off;

Things to consider

Here are some issues that you may want to consider in the course of your
research analysis.

References

See also

modified on October 28, 2011