The human organism is permanently exposed to various environmental factors, which
influence its performance, e.g. climatic conditions, nutrition intake behavior or air quality.
This thesis focuses on the human exposure to particulate matter.
The “Augsburger Umweltstudie” (2007–2008) was conducted at the KORA study center
in Augsburg and aimed at the investigation of the association between particulate matter
and human health. An accompanying validation study was conducted in 2011 in order to
collect information about the errors in the measurement of particulate matter.
The complexity of these errors arises from different data sources: 1.) The usage of
population-specific exposure measurements, e.g. from one or several fixed site measurement
stations, instead of personal measurements involves a Berkson type error. The
deviations between personal and populations–specific measurements are driven by the
microenvironment of the person and the climatic conditions. In the first part of the work,
a two–level exposure model is developed for the association between the fixed–site and the
personal exposure measurements of the validation study including the selection of relevant
covariates and the appropriate consideration of categorical covariates in the analysis
of longitudinal data. 2.) The mobile devices used for personal exposure measurements
exhibit classical measurement error, which is partially device–specific and autocorrelated.
3.) In order to use as much information as possible missing personal exposure measurements
are filled in with population–specific exposure measurements resulting in a mixture
of Berkson and classical measurement error.
The second part of the work aims at the development and application of methods to
include knowledge about Berkson, classical and mixture error into regression models of
the health outcome. Therefore, the method–of–moments is extended to longitudinal data
and to the different types of errors with individual–specific and autocorrelated structures.
Validation studies and expert knowledge provide information about the size of the measurement
error, but prior knowledge is often afflicted with uncertainty. Approaches for
the adequate inclusion of prior knowledge about the measurement errors in the Bayesian
health outcome model are evaluated in the third part of the thesis. The role of prior
knowledge in regression models with an error–prone covariate differs from conventional
Bayesian regression models and is strongly affected by the interaction between the parameters
in the model.
The thesis is closed with the application of the developed method–of–moments and
Bayesian approach to the Augsburger Umweltstudie by integrating information from the
validation studies