Recursive partitioning is a statistical

Statistics

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

 method for multivariable analysis. Recursive partitioning creates a decision tree

Decision tree learning

Decision tree learning, used in statistics, data mining and machine learning, uses a decision tree as a predictive model which maps observations about an item to conclusions about the item's target value. More descriptive names for such tree models are classification trees or regression trees...

 that strives to correctly classify members of the population based on several dichotomous dependent variables.

This article focuses on recursive partitioning for
medical diagnostic tests,
but the technique has far wider applications.
See decision tree

Decision tree learning

Decision tree learning, used in statistics, data mining and machine learning, uses a decision tree as a predictive model which maps observations about an item to conclusions about the item's target value. More descriptive names for such tree models are classification trees or regression trees...

.

As compared to regression analyses that creates a formula that health care providers can use to calculate the probability that a patient has a disease, recursive partition creates a rule such as 'If a patient has finding x, y, or z they probably have disease q.

A variation is 'Cox linear recursive partitioning'.

Advantages and disadvantages

Compared to other multivariable methods, recursive partitioning has advantages and disadvantages.

• Advantages are:
  • Generates clinically more intuitive models that do not require the user to perform calculations.
  • Allows varying prioritizing of missclassifications in order to create a decision rule that has more sensitivity or specificity.
  • May be more accurate.
• Disadvantages are:
  • Does not work well for continuous variables
  • May overfit data.

Examples

Examples are available of using recursive partitioning in research of diagnostic tests. Goldman used recursive partitioning to prioritize sensitivity in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

among patients with chest pain in the emergency room.