Bayesian Peer Calibration Based on Network Position with Application to Alcohol Use

• Activity Number: 608
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 7, 2013 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Bayesian Statistical Science
• Author(s): Miles Ott*+ and Joe Hogan and Krista J. Gile and Crystal Linkletter and Nancy Q. Barnett
• Companies: Brown University Biostatistics and Brown University and University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Brown University Biostatistics and Brown University
• Keywords: Comparative Calibration ; Self-Reports ; Peer-Reports ; Multiple Sources

Abstract

Peers are often able to provide important additional information to supplement self-reported behavioral measures. The study motivating this work collected data on alcohol in a social network formed by college students living in a freshman dormitory. By using two imperfect sources of information (self-reported and peer-reported alcohol consumption), rather than solely self-reports or peer-reports, we are able to gain insight into alcohol consumption on both the population and the individual level, as well as information on the discrepancy of individual peer-reports. We develop a novel Bayesian comparative calibration model for continuous, count and binary outcomes that uses covariate information to characterize the joint distribution of both self and peer-reports on the network for estimating peer-reporting discrepancies in network surveys, and apply this to the data for fully Bayesian inference. We use this model to understand the effects of covariates on both drinking behavior and peer-reporting discrepancies.