Robust Regression

🏥 Health Sciences · Robust Regression

Robust Regression

Karma · Sağlam

Robust Regression is one of the statistical analyses applied automatically in MerQur. This page illustrates — on a Health Sciences sample dataset — how the analysis is run, what the MerQur output looks like, and how the result is reported in APA 7 format.

🎯 What is it for?

Robust Regression automatically performs all assumption checks required for the data type (normality, homogeneity of variance, etc.) in the background and presents the results in a clear table + chart. Automatic APA 7-formatted interpretation, effect sizes (Cohen’s d, η², R²) and 95% confidence intervals are reported.

📌 When is it used?

  • Statistical analysis of measurements in the Health Sciences domain
  • To produce APA 7-compatible result tables for academic publications
  • Hypothesis testing and decision-making processes
  • Undergraduate / master’s / PhD theses after the appropriate method has been selected

📐 Assumptions

  • Appropriate scale — Variables must be at the measurement level required by the analysis (nominal/ordinal/interval/ratio)
  • Independent observations — Observations must come from individuals independent of one another
  • Sufficient sample size — The minimum n requirement for the analysis must be met
  • Outlier check — Outliers must be detected and evaluated

If assumptions are violated, MerQur automatically suggests a non-parametric or robust alternative.

🛠 How to do it in MerQur

1

Load the data. Select the sample file from File → Open. MerQur auto-detects column types.

2

Select the analysis. From the left side select Robust Regression.

3

Panel assignments (form fields in the program):

  • Target Column: kreatinin_mg_dL
  • Prediktorler: ['yas']
  • Norm: huber
  • Maks iter: 100
4

Optional settings. Effect size ✓ · 95% confidence interval ✓ · Assumption checks (automatic).

5

▶ Run — click the button. Results are produced automatically as a table + chart.

6

📄 Export to Word. APA 7-formatted report with italic statistical symbols.

📊 Sample Dataset — Health Sciences

ℹ Note: The scenario, MerQur output and interpretation below were produced by actually running the real example dataset in MerQur. Numeric results on your own data will differ; the goal is to show how the analysis is set up and interpreted end-to-end.

🎬 Example File

This analysis is demonstrated on the following example dataset for Health Sciences:

Tip/58_robust_age_creatinine.xlsx

🎬 Scenario

We model creatinine with age, down-weighting outliers. For data with outliers, robust regression is appropriate.

⚙️ Variable Selection

  • Dependent variable: creatinine_mg_dL
  • Predictor(s): age

Data Preview (First 5 Rows)

patient_idagecreatinine_mg_dL
1.048.01.16
2.043.00.71
3.077.01.01
4.072.00.8
5.087.01.5

n = 100 · Columns: patient_id, age, creatinine_mg_dL

📈 MerQur Output

ROBUST REGRESSION RESULT ───────────────────────────────────────────── Robust Intercept = 0.695 OLS Intercept = 0.993 outcome: creatinine_mg_dL predictor: age

💬 Interpretation

When modeling creatinine with age, we used robust regression to prevent outliers from distorting the estimate. The gap between the robust and OLS intercepts (0.695 vs 0.993) shows a few outlying observations (e.g. renal-failure patients) pull the classic estimate; the robust method down-weights them to reflect the “typical” relationship. In medicine it is the right way to get robust estimates without deleting outliers in laboratory data that contains them.

⚠ Common Mistakes

  • Misidentifying the data type (e.g., loading a categorical variable as numeric)
  • Skipping assumption checks and going straight to the p-value
  • Failing to report effect size — APA 7 requires both p and effect size
  • Failing to apply a Type I error correction (Bonferroni/Tukey) in multiple comparisons
  • Not switching to a non-parametric alternative when n is insufficient

📹 Video Walkthrough

Watch the video below for an end-to-end walkthrough of this analysis on a Health Sciences file.

▶ Robust Regression — video walkthrough

A complete end-to-end walkthrough of this analysis in MerQur, narrated on screen. Narration is in Turkish.

▶ Watch the video 📺 All videos

📚 If You Used This Analysis, Cite MerQur

If you performed this analysis using MerQur in a scientific study, please use the citation below as part of your academic citation obligations (APA 7):

Örücü, Ö. K. (2026). MerQur: Integrated Academic Data Analysis & Reporting Platform [Computer software] (Version 1.0.0). https://doi.org/10.53463/merqur.2026001

For BibTeX, RIS, EndNote and the English citation form: all citation formats →

Sources:
  1. American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).
  2. Field, A. (2018). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics (5th ed.). Sage.
  3. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum.