Hospital readmission prediction based on improved feature selection using grey relational analysis and LASSO
Grey Systems: Theory and Application
ISSN: 2043-9377
Article publication date: 4 May 2021
Issue publication date: 19 October 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This paper develops a robust hospital readmission prediction framework by combining the feature selection algorithm and machine learning (ML) classifiers. The improved feature selection is proposed by considering the uncertainty in patient's attributes that leads to the output variable.
Design/methodology/approach
First, data preprocessing is conducted which includes how raw data is managed. Second, the impactful features are selected through feature selection process. It started with calculating the relational grade of each patient towards readmission using grey relational analysis (GRA) and the grade is used as the target values for feature selection. Then, the influenced features are selected using the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) method. This proposed method is termed as Grey-LASSO feature selection. The final task is the readmission prediction using ML classifiers.
Findings
The proposed method offered good performances with a minimum feature subset up to 54–65% discarded features. Multi-Layer Perceptron with Grey-LASSO gave the best performance.
Research limitations/implications
The performance of Grey-LASSO is justified in two readmission datasets. Further research is required to examine the generalisability to other datasets.
Originality/value
In designing the feature selection algorithm, the selection on influenced input variables was based on the integration of GRA and LASSO. Specifically, GRA is a part of the grey system theory, which was employed to analyse the relation between systems under uncertain conditions. The LASSO approach was adopted due to its ability for sparse data representation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful for the support from the Health Informatics Centre, Ministry of Health Malaysia for providing the data to support this study under the medical ethics of NMRR-18-2909-44625. The financial supports received from the University of Malaya (IIRG004B-19HWB), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia are gratefully acknowledged.
Citation
Miswan, N.H., Chan, C.S. and Ng, C.G. (2021), "Hospital readmission prediction based on improved feature selection using grey relational analysis and LASSO", Grey Systems: Theory and Application, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 796-812. https://doi.org/10.1108/GS-12-2020-0168
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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