Hello all.
I am hoping to fit a multistate model to my capture-mark-recapture (alive only) dataset, which contains 5800 individual encounter histories over a 30-year period. There are 6 states (representing parasite load) and one grouping variable (age group: adult or juvenile).
I have run the goodness of fit tests for the JMV model in U-CARE and these give significant results for the adult group (the adults make up the vast majority of the individuals captured). I am unsure of how to proceed now.
In table 13 of the U-CARE manual section on multistate GoF tests (p.34-35) it states that if you have significant results in your GoF tests, you should ‘start from corresponding model with over-dispersion coefficient’. I am not 100 % sure what this statement means, but I assume it means that I should try and fit the general model (i.e. JMV), but somehow adjust the c-hat value. And this is where I am stuck…… I am unsure how to estimate an appropriate c-hat value for multistate models (I don’t think it’s possible to do this using the median-c bootstrap approach or other approaches offered for single-state models). Is there a way to use the U-CARE software to estimate an appropriate over-dispersion correction factor for the dataset?
Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Alice