American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 149, No. 12: 1077-1086
Copyright © 1999 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
article-commentary |
Presenting Statistical Uncertainty in Trends and Dose-Response Relations
1Department of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health Los Angeles, CA
2Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School Boston, MA
3Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health Boston, MA
4Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health Boston, MA
5Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina School of Public Health Chapel Hill, NC
6Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health Boston, MA
When one estimates the effects of a polytomous exposure, it is common practice to express all effects relative to a baseline or reference level. Certain authors have challenged this practice and proposed alternatives, which we review here. One alternative, the "floating absolute risk" method, can supply useful statistics and trend graphs, but it does not yield valid confidence intervals for relative risks. All categorical methods have further shortcomings when the exposure is continuous, however. These shortcomings can be addressed by plotting or tabulating confidence limits for points on a flexible curve fitted to the uncategorized data. Am J Epidemiol 1999; 149: 1077—86.
biometry; dose-response; epidemiologic methods; relative risk; smoothing; trend analysis
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  K.-A. Phillips, R. L. Milne, D. W. West, P. J. Goodwin, G. G. Giles, E. T. Chang, J. C. Figueiredo, M. L. Friedlander, T. H.M. Keegan, G. Glendon, et al. Prediagnosis Reproductive Factors and All-Cause Mortality for Women with Breast Cancer in the Breast Cancer Family Registry Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev., June 1, 2009; 18(6): 1792 - 1797. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 H. Becher, G. Kynast-Wolf, A. Sie, R. Ndugwa, H. Ramroth, B. Kouyate, and O. Muller Patterns of Malaria: Cause-Specific and All-Cause Mortality in a Malaria-Endemic Area of West Africa Am J Trop Med Hyg, January 1, 2008; 78(1): 106 - 113. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 G. Kynast-Wolf, G. P Hammer, O. Muller, B. Kouyate, and H. Becher Season of death and birth predict patterns of mortality in Burkina Faso Int. J. Epidemiol., April 1, 2006; 35(2): 427 - 435. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 S. C. Larsson, N. Hakansson, E. Giovannucci, and A. Wolk Folate intake and pancreatic cancer incidence: a prospective study of Swedish women and men. J Natl Cancer Inst, March 15, 2006; 98(6): 407 - 413. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 P. G. Arbogast Performance of Floating Absolute Risks Am. J. Epidemiol., September 1, 2005; 162(5): 487 - 490. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. Kupka, G. I. Msamanga, D. Spiegelman, S. Morris, F. Mugusi, D. J. Hunter, and W. W. Fawzi Selenium Status Is Associated with Accelerated HIV Disease Progression among HIV-1-Infected Pregnant Women in Tanzania J. Nutr., October 1, 2004; 134(10): 2556 - 2560. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
C. Bain, D. Feskanich, F. E. Speizer, M. Thun, E. Hertzmark, B. A. Rosner, and G. A. Colditz Lung Cancer Rates in Men and Women With Comparable Histories of Smoking J Natl Cancer Inst, June 2, 2004; 96(11): 826 - 834. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. G. Barr, C. C. Wentowski, F. Grodstein, S. C. Somers, M. J. Stampfer, J. Schwartz, F. E. Speizer, and C. A. Camargo Jr Prospective Study of Postmenopausal Hormone Use and Newly Diagnosed Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Arch Intern Med, February 23, 2004; 164(4): 379 - 386. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. T. Merchant, F. B. Hu, D. Spiegelman, W. C. Willett, E. B. Rimm, and A. Ascherio Dietary Fiber Reduces Peripheral Arterial Disease Risk in Men J. Nutr., November 1, 2003; 133(11): 3658 - 3663. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
R. Jiang, F. B. Hu, E. L. Giovannucci, E. B. Rimm, M. J. Stampfer, D. Spiegelman, B. A. Rosner, and W. C. Willett Joint Association of Alcohol and Folate Intake with Risk of Major Chronic Disease in Women Am. J. Epidemiol., October 15, 2003; 158(8): 760 - 771. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 K. He, E. B. Rimm, A. Merchant, B. A. Rosner, M. J. Stampfer, W. C. Willett, and A. Ascherio Fish Consumption and Risk of Stroke in Men JAMA, December 25, 2002; 288(24): 3130 - 3136. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. L. Hopper, G. S. Dite, S. Greenland, K. B. Michels, C. Poole, J. M. Robins, and W. C. Willett RE: "PRESENTING STATISTICAL UNCERTAINTY IN TRENDS AND DOSE-RESPONSE RELATIONS" Am. J. Epidemiol., May 15, 2002; 155(10): 977 - 979. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. Figueiras and C. Cadarso-Suarez Application of Nonparametric Models for Calculating Odds Ratios and Their Confidence Intervals for Continuous Exposures Am. J. Epidemiol., August 1, 2001; 154(3): 264 - 275. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
K. B Michels A renaissance for measurement error Int. J. Epidemiol., June 1, 2001; 30(3): 421 - 422. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. B. Spurdle, J. L. Hopper, G. S. Dite, X. Chen, J. Cui, M. R. E. McCredie, G. G. Giles, M. C. Southey, D. J. Venter, D. F. Easton, et al. CYP17 Promoter Polymorphism and Breast Cancer in Australian Women Under Age Forty Years J Natl Cancer Inst, October 18, 2000; 92(20): 1674 - 1681. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. W. Andersson, A. Niklasson, L. Lapidus, L. Hallberg, C. Bengtsson, and L. Hulthen Poor Agreement between Self-reported Birth Weight and Birth Weight from Original Records in Adult Women Am. J. Epidemiol., October 1, 2000; 152(7): 609 - 615. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. Easton, J. Peto, S. Greenland, K. B. Michels, C. Poole, and W. C. Willett RE: "PRESENTING STATISTICAL UNCERTAINTY IN TRENDS AND DOSE-RESPONSE RELATIONS" Am. J. Epidemiol., August 15, 2000; 152(4): 393 - 394. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|