Ordinal Logistic Regression

Ordinal Target Variable

Logistic regression is not limited to only have binary categorical target variables. Logistic regression works with target variables with any number of categories. If these categories have inherent order to them we perform ordinal logistic regression. Binary logistic regression is actually a special case of ordinal logistic regression since binary variables can only be written in two directions which is the requirement of ordinal variables. If the categories have no inherent order to them we perform nominal (or multinomial) logistic regression. Here we will discuss ordinal logistic regression.

Ordinal logistic regression models can also be used to model continuous target variables that have bounds on them however this will not be covered here.

Ordinal logistic regression models are generalizations of binary logistic regression models. In binary logistic regression we are calculating the probability that an observation has an event. In ordinal logistic regression we are calculating the probability that an observation has at most that event in an ordered list of outcomes.

We will be using the wallet data set to model the association between various factors and different levels of ethical responses to finding a wallet - returning the wallet and everything in it, returning the wallet but keeping the money found in it, keeping both the wallet and the money found inside. The variables in the data set are the following:

Variable Description
male indicator for a male student
business indicator for a student enrolled at a business school
punish how often the student was punished as a child (1 - low, 2 - moderate, 3 - high)
explain indicator for whether explanation for punishment was given

The most common and easiest to interpret approach for ordinal logistic regression is the cumulative logit approach in the proportional odds model.

Proportional Odds Model

Instead of modeling the typical logit from binary logistic regression, we will model the cumulative logits. These cumulative logits are built off target variables with \(m\) categories. The first logit will summarize the first category compared to the rest. The second logit will summarize the first two categories compared to the rest. This continues \(m-1\) times as the last logit compares the first \(m-1\) categories to the \(m^{th}\) category. In essence, with a target variable with \(m\) categories, we are building \(m-1\) logistic regressions. This is why binary logistic regression is a special case of the ordinal logistic regression model - 2 categories in the target variable leads to one logistic regression model.

The main assumption of the proportional odds model is that although the intercept changes across the \(m-1\) models, the slope parameters on each variable stay the same. This will make the effects proportional across the different logistic regressions.

Let’s see how to build these proportional odds models in each of our softwares!

Partial Proportional Odds Model

Although our data doesn’t have the proportional odds assumption fail in any of the variables, what would we do if it did? The partial proportional odds model is a model where some (not all) of the variables don’t follow the proportional odds assumption. If none of the variables follow the proportional odds assumption, then we should build a nominal (or multinomial) logistic regression summarized in the next section.

Let’s see how each of our softwares can build partial proportional odds models!

Interpretation

To understand the interpretation of the odds ratios in ordinal logistic regression we need to remember how the logistic regression equations are structured. Instead of modeling the typical logit from binary logistic regression, we will model the cumulative logits. These cumulative logits are built off target variables with \(m\) categories. The first logit will summarize the first category compared to the rest. The second logit will summarize the first two categories compared to the rest. This continues \(m-1\) times as the last logit compares the first \(m-1\) categories to the \(m^{th}\) category. The question really becomes what is first. Is it the largest category or the smallest category? The answer to this question will influence the interpretation of the results. If the first category is the smallest category then the categories are ascending as they build up further logistic regression models. If the first category is the largest category then the categories are descending as they build up further logistic regression models.

Both SAS and R can easily calculate descending category ordinal logistic regressions. The highest valued category is the starting point and each additional logistic regression adds the next highest valued category - building from the top down.

Predictions & Diagnostics

Ordinal logistic regression has a lot of similarities to binary logistic regression:

  • Multicollinearity still exists
  • Non-convergence problems still exists
  • Concordance, Discordance, Tied pairs still exist and so does the \(c\) statistic
  • Generalized \(R^2\) remains the same

There are some inherent differences though between binary and ordinal logistic regression. A lot of the diagnostics cannot be calculated for ordinal logistic regression. ROC curves and residuals cannot typically be calculated because there is actually more than one logistic regression occurring.

Predicted probabilities are actually for each category though. Let’s see how we can get predicted probabilities from each of our softwares!