Contents ...................................................................................................................................................... 2
Table of figures ........................................................................................................................................... 3
Practical 1 .................................................................................................................................................... 7
Practical 1 – Task 1: Relating bmi to age, sex and ethnic group for the total sample ............................ 7
Practical 1 ‐ Task 2: What do the data tell us about the relation between weight and height? .......... 19
Practical 1 ‐ Task 3: Opening MLwiN / input and output of data from MLwiN. ................................... 26
Practical 2 – Normal response multilevel analysis of the Health Survey for England using MLwIN ........ 34
Practical 2 ‐ Task 1: Setting up a variance components model ............................................................ 34
Practical 2 ‐ Task 2: Examining the residuals of a variance components model .................................. 49
Practical 2 ‐ Task 3: Fitting a main effects model ................................................................................. 53
Practical 2 ‐ Task 4: Generating predicted values ................................................................................. 62
Practical 2 ‐ Task 5: Random slopes ...................................................................................................... 65
Practical 2 ‐ Task 6: Adding interaction terms ...................................................................................... 68
Practical 2 ‐ Task 7: Adding a quadratic function of age to the model. ................................................ 70
Practical 2 ‐ Task 8: Adding variables at higher levels .......................................................................... 72
Exercises ................................................................................................................................................ 76
Practical 3 ‐ Considering BMI in other formats ......................................................................................... 78
Practical 3 – Task 1: Creating categorical BM variables and looking at risk factors related with being ‘overweight’ .......................................................................................................................................... 78
Practical 3 – Task 2: Single level logistic regression models ................................................................. 88
Practical 3 – Task 3: Multilevel modelling of the data – random intercepts ...................................... 101
Practical 3 – Task 3: Multilevel modelling of the data – fitting Random slopes for age..................... 106
Practical 3 – Task 4: Investigating risk factors related to different weight characterisations ............ 111
Further practical ideas ........................................................................................................................ 120