American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on May 17, 2006
American Journal of Epidemiology 2006 163(12):1079-1082; doi:10.1093/aje/kwj177
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2006 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.
Invited Commentary |
Invited Commentary: Considerations about Specificity of Associations, Causal Pathways, and Heterogeneity in Multilevel Thinking
From the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Correspondence to Dr. Sandro Galea, Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1214 South University, Room 243, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548 (e-mail: sgalea@umich.edu).
Received for publication February 4, 2006. Accepted for publication February 13, 2006.
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INTRODUCTION |
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During the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of multilevel modeling in epidemiologic analysis. There were 10 times as many papers in Index Medicus identified by the terms "multilevel" and "epidemiology" in 2005 than there were in 1995. In recent years, the American Journal of Epidemiology has published papers that use multilevel analyses to consider the associations between group-level characteristics and a range of health indicators (1
–7). Accompanying these content-specific contributions have been several discussions of the strengths and limitations of multilevel modeling techniques (8, 9) and the rationale for applying these methods to public health (10, 11).
In this issue of the Journal, Wight et al. (12) examine whether neighborhood context influences the cognitive function of older adults. This paper contributes to the literature that considers the role of group-level education as a determinant of individual
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SPECIFICITY OF ASSOCIATIONS |
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THINKING ABOUT CAUSAL PATHWAYS |
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HETEROGENEITY OF ASSOCIATION |
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CONCLUSION |
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