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Adjustment of a sparse and irregular reference rate matrix

Strömberg, Ulf LU and Horstmann, Vibeke LU (1995) In American Journal of Epidemiology 142(2). p.212-221
Abstract
Regional sex-specific rates of a rare disease often show conspicuous fluctuations over conventional strata of age and calendar time. In a cohort study, when such rates are used as references in the calculation of the expected number of cases, the accumulated person-time of the study cohort may somewhat haphazardly contribute to the result. For example, only the person-time observed in the strata with at least one reference case registered contnbutes to the expected number of cases. It may therefore be important to evaluate whether the regional rates seem to differ systematically from the more stable national rates. When such differences may be indicated, a fairly simple method is proposed for smoothing rates. This method aims to

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Regional sex-specific rates of a rare disease often show conspicuous fluctuations over conventional strata of age and calendar time. In a cohort study, when such rates are used as references in the calculation of the expected number of cases, the accumulated person-time of the study cohort may somewhat haphazardly contribute to the result. For example, only the person-time observed in the strata with at least one reference case registered contnbutes to the expected number of cases. It may therefore be important to evaluate whether the regional rates seem to differ systematically from the more stable national rates. When such differences may be indicated, a fairly simple method is proposed for smoothing rates. This method aims to

produce rates that better reflect the underlying, supposedly smooth, rate pattern over age and calendar time in a population of interest. The present paper illustrates the technique by considering right-sided colon cancer incidence rates from a regional male population, which the authors use to calculate the expected number of such cases in an occupational cohort. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
cohort studies, epidemiologic methods, space-time clustenng, statistics
in
American Journal of Epidemiology
volume
142
issue
2
pages
212 - 221
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:0029009846
ISSN
0002-9262
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Department of Statistics (012014000), Division of Occupational Therapy (Closed 2012) (013025000), Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (013078001)
id
2c44debc-509e-4d87-8953-fe59e976fc91 (old id 3294637)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 07:25:02
date last changed
2021-01-03 07:26:40
@article{2c44debc-509e-4d87-8953-fe59e976fc91,
  abstract     = {{Regional sex-specific rates of a rare disease often show conspicuous fluctuations over conventional strata of age and calendar time. In a cohort study, when such rates are used as references in the calculation of the expected number of cases, the accumulated person-time of the study cohort may somewhat haphazardly contribute to the result. For example, only the person-time observed in the strata with at least one reference case registered contnbutes to the expected number of cases. It may therefore be important to evaluate whether the regional rates seem to differ systematically from the more stable national rates. When such differences may be indicated, a fairly simple method is proposed for smoothing rates. This method aims to<br/><br>
produce rates that better reflect the underlying, supposedly smooth, rate pattern over age and calendar time in a population of interest. The present paper illustrates the technique by considering right-sided colon cancer incidence rates from a regional male population, which the authors use to calculate the expected number of such cases in an occupational cohort.}},
  author       = {{Strömberg, Ulf and Horstmann, Vibeke}},
  issn         = {{0002-9262}},
  keywords     = {{cohort studies; epidemiologic methods; space-time clustenng; statistics}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{212--221}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{American Journal of Epidemiology}},
  title        = {{Adjustment of a sparse and irregular reference rate matrix}},
  volume       = {{142}},
  year         = {{1995}},
}