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American Journal of Epidemiology 2005 161(12):1182-1184; doi:10.1093/aje/kwi153
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2005 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Re: "(Mis)use of Factor Analysis in the Study of Insulin Resistance Syndrome"

Anthony J. G. Hanley1,2, James B. Meigs3, Ken Williams2, Steven M. Haffner2 and Ralph B. D'Agostino, Sr.4

1 Leadership Sinai Centre for Diabetes, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1X5 Canada
2 Division of Clinical Epidemiology, University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78207
3 General Internal Medicine Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114
4 Statistics and Consulting Unit, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

We read with interest the recent Journal commentary by Lawlor et al. (1Go) regarding the utility of factor analysis in understanding the metabolic syndrome (MetS). We agree that the results of studies using exploratory factor analysis should be interpreted with some caution given that it is not, strictly speaking, a hypothesis-testing technique and that certain arbitrary decisions are necessarily made in using this approach. These issues have been reviewed in detail previously in this journal (2Go). We also agree that, in analyzing the clinical importance of the MetS, it would be of value to assess the ability of factor scores, in comparison with standard definitions, to predict outcomes such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In fact, two recent studies compared factor scores against impaired glucose tolerance (3Go, 4Go) and standard MetS definitions (4Go) in the prediction of diabetes.

However, we disagree with a number of . . . [Full Text of this Article]


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