[R] predicting waste per capita - is a gaussian model correct?

[Alessandra Bielli]

Dear list,

I am new to this list and I hope it is ok to post here even though I
already posted this question on Cross Validated.

I am trying to predict the daily amount of waste per person produced in the
fishery sector. We surveyed fishing boats at the end of their fishing trip
and the variables I have are duration of trip (days), number of fishers,
waste category and waste weight (g), boat ID.

For each fishing trip I calculated grams of waste per person per day, i.e.
daily waste per capita. To predict daily waste per capita, I am using a
gaussian mixed effect model with log(waste per capita) as response variable
(I transformed it cause it was not normally distributed - and I'm not sure
it's correct to do so). Explanatory variable is waste category and boat ID
is a random effect. I use the predict function to estimate daily waste per
capita for each category and then back transformed it with exp(...).

My question is: is it correct to transform daily weight per capita to fit a
gaussian model?

Thanks so much for your advice!

Alessandra

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