Solved – Interpreting Standard Deviation of Natural Log Transformed Data

back-transformationlognormal distributionstandard deviation

I am interested in interpreting (back transforming) the effect of a one standard deviation (sd) increase in a log transformed on the non-transformed variable.

So let's say I have a variable Y:

Y= # of likes

ln(Y)= log transformed # of likes

mean(ln(Y))=7.7

sd(ln(Y))=0.8

Now I want to relate the sd(ln(Y)) back to non-transformed units Y. In other words, how many (#) likes is a one standard deviation increase of the log transformed units( sd(ln(Y))=0.8) equal to?

I thought maybe I could simply compare the change in the transformed data mean with the standard units) and back transform using the exponential function

e^(7.7+0.8)- e^(7.7)≈2706

So a one standard deviation increase of the log-transformed variable translates to 2,706 likes. Is this ok? Or should I be using another formula to calculate this?

Best Answer

The proposed interpretation in your last paragraph is incorrect -- that increase only applies at the mean. If you started lower, it would be a smaller increase and if you started higher it would be a larger increase.

$e^{a+0.8}- e^a=e^{a}(e^{0.8}- 1)\approx 1.2255 e^a$

It's better to think in terms of percentage increase.

$\frac{e^{a+0.8}- e^a}{e^a}\approx 1.2255$, or about 122.5% increase.

However, I am concerned about your use of logs on a count that could be zero (count of "likes").