Decision trees in epidemiological research

Table 3 Linear regression output for modeling 24-h energy intake using a “suitable” set of predictors

	Estimate	SE	t value	Pr(\({>}\|\hbox {t}\|\))
(Intercept)	1279.36	211.78	6.04	<0.001***
Sex: male	378.03	66.30	5.70	<0.001***
Body mass index	16.68	6.96	2.40	0.017*
Snack-energy kcal/day	1.29	0.12	10.76	<0.001***
Fruit/vegetable svg/day	38.84	14.94	2.60	0.010**
Sugar-sweetened beverage svg/day	114.20	30.3234	3.77	<0.001***
Contour drawing rating scale-body dissatisfaction [1–9]	−48.44	26.2195	−1.85	0.066
Frequency of self-weigh
Never	(Ref)
About once a year or less	−405.34	145.47	−2.79	0.006**
Every couple of months	−247.32	137.55	−1.80	0.074
Every month	−374.43	147.96	−2.53	0.012*
Every week	−414.77	138.67	−2.99	0.003**
Every day	−450.17	166.89	−2.70	0.008**
Fast food frequency
Never	(Ref)
1–3 times last month	14.13	77.01	0.18	0.855
1–2 times per week	35.63	95.42	0.37	0.709
3–4 times per week	−187.55	204.63	−0.92	0.360
5–6 times per week	−235.81	237.61	−0.99	0.322
7 or more times per week	738.04	238.35	3.10	0.002**
Hunger	32.52	10.15	3.20	0.002**
Wanting	2.88	0.85	3.40	<0.001***

This “suitable” set of predictors is chosen using a backward elimination process, such that the AIC for the relevant model is minimized