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Table 2 Multilayer perceptron models predicting 45-year all-cause mortality (1447 deaths among 1591 men) by two methods

From: Artificial neural networks versus proportional hazards Cox models to predict 45-year all-cause mortality in the Italian Rural Areas of the Seven Countries Study

Rank

Gini

Variable

Keep

NEURAL NETWORK FORCED

1

0.15950

Age (AGE0: years)

1

2

0.60615

Cigarettes smoked per day (CIG0: N)

1

3

0.64475

Family history of CVD(famcv0: codes 0–1)

1

4

0.64790

Mean blood pressure (MBP: mmHg)

1

5

0.65872

Serum cholesterol (CHOL0: mmol/l)

1

6

0.67052

Corneal arcus (gero0: codes 0–1)

1

7

0.67484

Mother status (Mother0: codes 0–1)

1

8

0.67680

Prevalence DIAB (pdiab0: codes 0–1)

1

9

0.68081

Forced expiratory volume (fev0trans0: l/m2)

1

10

0.68321

Heart rate (hr0: beats/min)

1

11

0.68362

Father status (Father0: codes 0–1)

1

12

0.68414

Body mass index (BMI0: Kg/m2)

1

13

0.68516

Minor ECG abnormalities (MinorECG0: codes 0–1)

1

14

0.68524

Prevalence CVD (Pcvd0: codes 0–1)

1

15

0.68579

Arm circumference (midclean0: cm)

1

16

0.68664

Body mass index2 (BMIsq0) [(Kg/m2)2]

1

17

0.68813

Prevalence cancer (pcan0: codes 0–1)

0

18

0.68872

Physical activity (PHYAC0: codes 1-2-3)

0

NEURAL NETWORK STEPWISE

1

0.17824

Age (years)

1

2

0.60661

Cigarettes smoked per day (N)

1

3

0.65370

Mean blood pressure (mmHg)

1

4

0.67844

Mother status (codes 0–1)

1

5

0.67918

Corneal arcus (codes 0–1)

1

6

0.68104

Heart rate (beats/min)

1

7

0.68347

Father status (codes 0–1)

1

8

0.68468

Minor ECG abnormalities (codes 0–1)

1

9

0.69231

Physical activity (codes 1-2-3)

1

10

0.69329

Family history (codes 0–1)

1

11

0.69480

Prevalence DIAB (codes 0–1)

1

12

0.69603

Serum cholesterol (mmol/l)

1

13

0.69854

Prevalence CVD (codes 0–1)

1

  1. Gini = (ROC-0.5)*2 [see text for further details]; Keep = 1: the variable may stay in the model; Keep = 0: removing the variable improves the training set model.
  2. CVD = cardiovascular disease; DIAB = diabetes. Variables’ codes are included in parentheses to interpret the Figure in Additional file 1: Appendix 2.