Geoadditive models

A study into geographical variability of reproductive health outcomes (e.g. birth weight) in Upper Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA, benefits from geostatistical mapping or kriging. However, also observed are some continuous covariates (e.g. maternal age) that exhibit pronounced non-linear relationships with the response variable. To account for such effects properly we merge kriging with additive models to obtain what we call geoadditive models. The merging becomes effortless by expressing both as linear mixed models. The resulting mixed model representation for the geoadditive model allows for fitting and diagnosis using standard methodology and software.