Cardiovascular disease detection using a novel stack-based ensemble classifier with aggregation layer, DOWA operator, and feature transformation

Due to their widespread prevalence and impact on quality of life, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) pose a considerable global health burden. Early detection and intervention can reduce the incidence, severity, and progression of CVD and prevent premature death. The application of machine learning (ML) techniques to early CVD detection is therefore a valuable approach. In this paper, A stack-based ensemble classifier with an aggregation layer and the dependent ordered weighted averaging (DOWA) operator is proposed for detecting cardiovascular diseases. We propose transforming features using the Johnson transformation technique and normalizing feature distributions. Three diverse first-level classifiers are selected based on their accuracy, and predictions are combined using the aggregation layer and DOWA. A linear support vector machine (SVM) meta-classifier makes the final classification. Adding the aggregation layer to the stacking classifier improves classification accuracy significantly, according to the study. The accuracy is enhanced by 5%, resulting in an impressive overall accuracy of 94.05%. Moreover, the proposed system significantly increases the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve compared to recent studies, reaching 97.14%. It further reinforces the classifier's reliability and effectiveness in classifying cardiovascular disease by distinguishing between positive and negative instances. With improved accuracy and a high area under the curve (AUC), the proposed classifier exhibits robustness and superior performance in the detection of cardiovascular diseases. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd