196 research outputs found
A Conversation with Monroe Sirken
Born January 11, 1921 in New York City, Monroe Sirken grew up in a suburb of
Pasadena, California. He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in sociology at UCLA in
1946 and 1947, and a Ph.D. in 1950 in sociology with a minor in mathematics at
the University of Washington in 1950 where Professor Z. W. Birnbaum was his
mentor and thesis advisor. As a Post-Doctoral Fellow of the Social Science
Research Council, Monroe spent 1950--1951 at the Statistics Laboratory,
University of California at Berkeley and the Office of the Assistant Director
for Research, U.S. Bureau of the Census in Suitland, Maryland. Monroe visited
the Census Bureau at a time of great change in the use of sampling and survey
methods, and decided to remain. He began his government career there in 1951 as
a mathematical statistician, and moved to the National Office of Vital
Statistics (NOVS) in 1953 where he was an actuarial mathematician and a
mathematical statistician. He has held a variety of research and administrative
positions at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and he was the
Associate Director, Research and Methodology and the Director, Office of
Research and Methodology until 1996 when he became a senior research scientist,
the title he currently holds. Aside from administrative responsibilities,
Monroe's major professional interests have been conducting and fostering survey
and statistical research responsive to the needs of federal statistics. His
interest in the design of rare and sensitive population surveys led to the
development of network sampling which improves precision by linking multiple
selection units to the same observation units. His interest in fostering
research on the cognitive aspects of survey methods led to the establishment of
permanent questionnaire design research laboratories, first at NCHS and later
at other federal statistical agencies here and abroad.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-STS245 the Statistical
Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Confidence Intervals for Prevalence Estimates from Complex Surveys with Imperfect Assays
We present several related methods for creating confidence intervals to
assess disease prevalence in variety of survey sampling settings. These include
simple random samples with imperfect tests, weighted sampling with perfect
tests, and weighted sampling with imperfect tests, with the first two settings
considered special cases of the third. Our methods use survey results and
measurements of test sensitivity and specificity to construct melded confidence
intervals. We demonstrate that our methods appear to guarantee coverage in
simulated settings, while competing methods are shown to achieve much lower
than nominal coverage. We apply our method to a seroprevalence survey of
SARS-CoV-2 in undiagnosed adults in the United States between May and July
2020.Comment: 45 pages, 35 figure
Scatterplots with Survey Data
https://commons.wmu.se/lib_chapters/1001/thumbnail.jp
Secular Trends in Regional Differences in Nutritional Biomarkers and Self-Reported Dietary Intakes among American Adults: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1988β1994 to 2009β2010
Objective: To understand the contribution of regional differentials in dietary exposures to regional gradients in health, we examined 20-year trends in the association of US census region of residence with nutritional biomarkers and dietary intakes of American adults.
Design: Observational. Setting: The biomarker and 24 h dietary recall data were from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) conducted during 1988β1994 and 1999β2010. The US census region was operationalized as Northeast, Midwest, South and West. Nutritional biomarker outcomes were serum folate, vitamins B6, B12, C, D and E, and carotenoids; dietary outcomes were intakes of nutrients, food groups and eating patterns.
Subjects: US adults, n\u3e8000β40 000 for biomarkers and \u3e43 000 for dietary outcomes.
Results: The interactions of survey time period and region were not significant for the examined biomarker and dietary outcomes, indicating similar secular trends among regions. The main effect of region was significant for all nutritional biomarkers except serum vitamin B6, most dietary micronutrients, food groups and eating patterns (P\u3c0Β·001). The mean serum folate, vitamins B12, C and E, and all carotenoid (except lycopene) biomarker levels, and intakes of dietary fibre, vitamins A, E, C and B6, folate, K, Ca, Mg and Fe, fruits, vegetables and whole grains, were higher in the West and Northeast regions, relative to the South and Midwest regions.
Conclusions: Overall, the regional gradients in dietary exposure, expressed objectively as biomarkers or as self-reported nutrient and food group intakes, paralleled trajectories reported for health outcomes and were remarkably persistent over time
Male Pattern Baldness in Relation to Prostate CancerβSpecific Mortality: A Prospective Analysis in the NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study
We used male pattern baldness as a proxy for long-term androgen exposure and investigated the association of dermatologist-assessed hair loss with prostate cancerβspecific mortality in the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Epidemiologic Follow-up Study. From the baseline survey (1971β1974), we included 4,316 men who were 25β74 years of age and had no prior cancer diagnosis. We estimated hazard ratios and used Cox proportional hazards regressions with age as the time metric and baseline hazard stratified by baseline age. A hybrid framework was used to account for stratification and clustering of the sample design, with adjustment for the variables used to calculate sample weights. During follow-up (median, 21 years), 3,284 deaths occurred; prostate cancer was the underlying cause of 107. In multivariable models, compared with no balding, any baldness was associated with a 56% higher risk of fatal prostate cancer (hazard ratio = 1.56; 95% confidence interval: 1.02, 2.37), and moderate balding specifically was associated with an 83% higher risk (hazard ratio = 1.83; 95% confidence interval: 1.15, 2.92). Conversely, patterned hair loss was not statistically significantly associated with all-cause mortality. Our analysis suggests that patterned hair loss is associated with a higher risk of fatal prostate cancer and supports the hypothesis of overlapping pathophysiological mechanisms
Blood Lead Levels and Death from All Causes, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer: Results from the NHANES III Mortality Study
BACKGROUND: Analyses of mortality data for participants examined in 1976β1980 in the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II) suggested an increased risk of mortality at blood lead levels > 20 ΞΌg/dL. Blood lead levels have decreased markedly since the late 1970s. In NHANES III, conducted during 1988β1994, few adults had levels > 20 ΞΌg/dL. OBJECTIVE: Our objective in this study was to determine the risk of mortality in relation to lower blood lead levels observed for adult participants of NHANES III. METHODS: We analyzed mortality information for 9,757 participants who had a blood lead measurement and who were β₯ 40 years of age at the baseline examination. Using blood lead levels categorized as < 5, 5 to < 10, and β₯ 10 ΞΌg/dL, we determined the relative risk of mortality from all causes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease through Cox proportional hazard regression analysis. RESULTS: Using blood lead levels < 5 ΞΌg/dL as the referent, we determined that the relative risk of mortality from all causes was 1.24 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.05β1.48] for those with blood levels of 5β9 ΞΌg/dL and 1.59 (95% CI, 1.28β1.98) for those with blood levels β₯ 10 ΞΌg/dL (p for trend < 0.001). The magnitude of risk was similar for deaths due to cardiovascular disease and cancer, and tests for trend were statistically significant (p < 0.01) for both causes of death. CONCLUSION: In a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population, blood lead levels as low as 5β9 ΞΌg/dL were associated with an increased risk of death from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer
Neighborhood Socioeconomic Deprivation and Mortality: NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study
Residing in deprived areas may increase risk of mortality beyond that explained by a person's own SES-related factors and lifestyle. The aim of this study was to examine the relation between neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and all-cause, cancer- and cardiovascular disease (CVD)-specific mortality for men and women after accounting for education and other important person-level risk factors.In the longitudinal NIH-AARP Study, we analyzed data from healthy participants, ages 50-71 years at study baseline (1995-1996). Deaths (nβ=β33831) were identified through December 2005. Information on census tracts was obtained from the 2000 US Census. Cox models estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for quintiles of neighborhood deprivation.Participants in the highest quintile of deprivation had elevated risks for overall mortality (HR(men)β=β1.17, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.24; HR(women)β=β1.13, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.22) and marginally increased risk for cancer deaths (HR(men)β=β1.09, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.20; HR(women)β=β1.09, 95% CI: 0.99, 1.22). CVD mortality associations appeared stronger in men (HRβ=β1.33, 95% CI: 1.19, 1.49) than women (HRβ=β1.18, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.38). There was no evidence of an effect modification by education.Higher neighborhood deprivation was associated with modest increases in all-cause, cancer- and CVD-mortality after accounting for many established risk factors
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