Dear researchers,

I have an unbalanced data set. The dependent variable is a categorical variable from 1 - 5. The option of analysis here that I should use is ordered logistic regression -xtologit-.
But is there any option do you recommend to convert the ordinal dependent variable to scale or ratio, so I can use xtreg. Do you think it is an acceptable method?

I mean can I treat it as quantitative and linear and use OLS?
Many thanks in advance.