st: Hurdle models vs. zero inflated models

[Pooja Desai <desai.pooja87@gmail.com>]

Hello All,

I have a variable which represents the length of stay in the hospital
for patients. 90% of the patients were not hospitalized so they have a
0 length of stay. I was considering using either a zero-inflated
negative binomial regression or a hurdle model (logit and zero
truncated negative binomial) for this variable. Since all the zeros on
the length of stay come from one source—the patients not having a
hospitalization, I thought a hurdle model would be a better option
(there are no sampling zeros). Is that an appropriate choice?

If so, I need to find the predicted length of stay from the model. Is
there a way to get the predicted value after accounting for both the
logistic and zero truncated negative binomial models?

Thanks in advance.

Pooja Desai
Health Outcomes and Pharmacy Practice
The University of Texas at Austin

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