[R-sig-ME] Random intercepts and/or slopes

[Maria Helena Mourino Silva Nunes]

Dear all,

I’m new to mixed models, and I’m analysing a patients’ data set whose response variable is adherence/no adherence to medication (binary variable, 0/1). For each patient there are different types of independent variables: sociodemographic; clinical; blood pressure control; etc. Additionally, patients are grouped (nested) within doctors. Due to the sampling design, I only have one replicate for each patient.

I want to study the impact of the independent variables on the adherence/no adherence to medication.  I’m not interested in studying the patients by themselves.
My question is: should I consider the simplest model     response  ~  Indep. Variables +  (1|Doctor),
or  should I explicitly introduce the nested structure of patient within doctor,   response ~ Indep. Variables + (Patient|Doctor) ?


Thanks in advanced!

Best regards,
Helena.