ElisaTom/zambia-malnutrition-gam

Statistical Methods Final Project - Non-linear analysis of malnutrition in Zambia using GAMs # Zambia Malnutrition Analysis (GAM) This project focuses on identifying non-linear patterns in child malnutrition in Zambia. ## Key Findings - **Non-linearity:** Child age shows a strong non-linear effect (EDF 6.59). - **Growth Faltering:** We identified a significant drop in Z-scores during the first 24 months. - **Model Performance:** The GAM model improved predictive performance (MSE) by 8.55% compared to the linear baseline. ## Technology - R (mgcv, haven) - LaTeX for reporting