Application of Data Mining for Predicting Adult Mortality.
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Date
2012-06
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Background: The fast-growing, tremendous amount of data, collected and stored in large and massive data repositories, has far exceeded human ability for comprehension without powerful tools. As a result, data collected in large data repositories become seldom visited. This in turn, calls the application of data mining technology. Every year, more than 7·7 million children die before their fifth birthday. However, over three times those of nearly 24 million adults die every year. Less attention has been given to adults which are the most productive phase of life for both economic and social ramification of families and countries.
Objective: The general objective of this research is to construct adult mortality predictive model using data mining techniques so as to identify and improve adult health status using BRHP open cohort database.
Methods: The hybrid model that was developed for academic research was followed. Dataset is preprocessed for missing values, outliers and data transformation. Decision tree and Naïve Bayes algorithms were employed to build the predictive model by using a sample dataset of 62,869 records of both alive and died adults through three experiments and six scenarios.
Result: In this study as compared to Bayes, the performance of J48 pruned decision tree reveals that 97.2% of accurate results are possible for developing classification rules that can be used for prediction. If no education in family and the person is living in rural highland and lowland, the probability of experiencing adult death is 98.4% and 97.4% respectively with concomitant attributes in the rule generated. The likely chance of adult to survive in completed primary school, completed secondary school, and further education is (98.9%, 99%, 100%) respectively.
Conclusion: The study suggests that education plays a considerable role as a root cause of adult death, followed by outmigration. Further comprehensive and extensive experimentation is needed to substantially describe the loss experiences of adult mortality in Ethiopia.
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Keywords
BRHP data, Mortality, Adult, predictive model, J48 decision tree, Data Mining.