Cluster modelling of disease incidence via RJMCMC methods: a comparative evaluation
Andrew B. Lawson · Statistics in Medicine · 2000
The spatial modelling of small area health data has, for some time, included spatial autocorrelation as a random effect. This effect is non-specific and global and does not address the location of clusters of disease (a specific task). This paper addresses the need for specific and non-specific random effects within spatial epidemiology. In addition, individual frailty is also considered important and a computational algorithm based on reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo (RJMCMC) methods is described. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.