| 1. |
- Andersson, Claes, 1987, et al.
(författare)
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Discovering early diabetic neuropathy from epidermal nerve fiber patterns
- 2016
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Ingår i: Statistics in Medicine. - : Wiley. - 0277-6715 .- 1097-0258. ; 35:24, s. 4427-4442
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Epidermal nerve fibre (ENF) density and morphology are used to study small fibre involvement in diabetic, HIV, chemotherapy induced and other neuropathies. ENF density and summed length of ENFs per epidermal surface area are reduced, and ENFs may appear more clustered within the epidermis in subjects with small fibre neuropathy than in healthy subjects. Therefore, it is important to understand the spatial structure of ENFs. In this paper, we compare the ENF patterns between healthy subjects and subjects suffering from mild diabetic neuropathy. The study is based on suction skin blister specimens from the right foot of 32 healthy subjects and eight subjects with mild diabetic neuropathy. We regard the ENF entry point (location where the trunks of a nerve enters the epidermis) and ENF end point (termination of the nerve fibres) patterns as realizations of spatial point processes, and develop tools that can be used in the analysis and modelling of ENF patterns. We use spatial summary statistics and shift plots and define a new tool, reactive territory, to study the spatial patterns and to compare the patterns of the two groups. We will also introduce a simple model for these data in order to understand the growth process of the nerve fibres.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Claes, 1987, et al.
(författare)
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Hierarchical models for epidermal nerve fiber data
- 2018
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Ingår i: Statistics in Medicine. - : Wiley. - 0277-6715 .- 1097-0258. ; 37:3, s. 357-374
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While epidermal nerve fiber (ENF) data have been used to study the effects of small fiber neuropathies through the density and the spatial patterns of the ENFs, little research has been focused on the effects on the individual nerve fibers. Studying the individual nerve fibers might give a better understanding of the effects of the neuropathy on the growth process of the individual ENFs. In this study, data from 32 healthy volunteers and 20 diabetic subjects, obtained from suction induced skin blister biopsies, are analyzed by comparing statistics for the nerve fibers as a whole and for the segments that a nerve fiber is composed of. Moreover, it is evaluated whether this type of data can be used to detect diabetic neuropathy, by using hierarchical models to perform unsupervised classification of the subjects. It is found that using the information about the individual nerve fibers in combination with the ENF counts yields a considerable improvement as compared to using the ENF counts only. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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| 3. |
- Austin, Peter C, et al.
(författare)
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Intermediate and advanced topics in multilevel logistic regression analysis
- 2017
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Ingår i: Statistics in Medicine. - : Wiley. - 1097-0258 .- 0277-6715. ; 36:20, s. 3257-3277
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Multilevel data occur frequently in health services, population and public health, and epidemiologic research. In such research, binary outcomes are common. Multilevel logistic regression models allow one to account for the clustering of subjects within clusters of higher-level units when estimating the effect of subject and cluster characteristics on subject outcomes. A search of the PubMed database demonstrated that the use of multilevel or hierarchical regression models is increasing rapidly. However, our impression is that many analysts simply use multilevel regression models to account for the nuisance of within-cluster homogeneity that is induced by clustering. In this article, we describe a suite of analyses that can complement the fitting of multilevel logistic regression models. These ancillary analyses permit analysts to estimate the marginal or population-average effect of covariates measured at the subject and cluster level, in contrast to the within-cluster or cluster-specific effects arising from the original multilevel logistic regression model. We describe the interval odds ratio and the proportion of opposed odds ratios, which are summary measures of effect for cluster-level covariates. We describe the variance partition coefficient and the median odds ratio which are measures of components of variance and heterogeneity in outcomes. These measures allow one to quantify the magnitude of the general contextual effect. We describe an R(2) measure that allows analysts to quantify the proportion of variation explained by different multilevel logistic regression models. We illustrate the application and interpretation of these measures by analyzing mortality in patients hospitalized with a diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. © 2017 The Authors. Statistics in Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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| 4. |
- Austin, Peter C, et al.
(författare)
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Measures of clustering and heterogeneity in multilevel Poisson regression analyses of rates/count data
- 2018
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Ingår i: Statistics in Medicine. - : Wiley. - 1097-0258 .- 0277-6715. ; 37:4, s. 572-589
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Multilevel data occur frequently in many research areas like health services research and epidemiology. A suitable way to analyze such data is through the use of multilevel regression models. These models incorporate cluster-specific random effects that allow one to partition the total variation in the outcome into between-cluster variation and between-individual variation. The magnitude of the effect of clustering provides a measure of the general contextual effect. When outcomes are binary or time-to-event in nature, the general contextual effect can be quantified by measures of heterogeneity like the median odds ratio or the median hazard ratio, respectively, which can be calculated from a multilevel regression model. Outcomes that are integer counts denoting the number of times that an event occurred are common in epidemiological and medical research. The median (incidence) rate ratio in multilevel Poisson regression for counts that corresponds to the median odds ratio or median hazard ratio for binary or time-to-event outcomes respectively is relatively unknown and is rarely used. The median rate ratio is the median relative change in the rate of the occurrence of the event when comparing identical subjects from 2 randomly selected different clusters that are ordered by rate. We also describe how the variance partition coefficient, which denotes the proportion of the variation in the outcome that is attributable to between-cluster differences, can be computed with count outcomes. We illustrate the application and interpretation of these measures in a case study analyzing the rate of hospital readmission in patients discharged from hospital with a diagnosis of heart failure.
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| 5. |
- Austin, Peter C., et al.
(författare)
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The median hazard ratio : a useful measure of variance and general contextual effects in multilevel survival analysis
- 2017
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Ingår i: Statistics in Medicine. - : WILEY. - 0277-6715 .- 1097-0258. ; 36:6, s. 928-938
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Multilevel data occurs frequently in many research areas like health services research and epidemiology. A suitable way to analyze such data is through the use of multilevel regression models (MLRM). MLRM incorporate cluster-specific random effects which allow one to partition the total individual variance into between-cluster variation and between-individual variation. Statistically, MLRM account for the dependency of the data within clusters and provide correct estimates of uncertainty around regression coefficients. Substantively, the magnitude of the effect of clustering provides a measure of the General Contextual Effect (GCE). When outcomes are binary, the GCE can also be quantified by measures of heterogeneity like the Median Odds Ratio (MOR) calculated from a multilevel logistic regression model. Time-to-event outcomes within a multilevel structure occur commonly in epidemiological and medical research. However, the Median Hazard Ratio (MHR) that corresponds to the MOR in multilevel (i.e., 'frailty') Cox proportional hazards regression is rarely used. Analogously to the MOR, the MHR is the median relative change in the hazard of the occurrence of the outcome when comparing identical subjects from two randomly selected different clusters that are ordered by risk. We illustrate the application and interpretation of the MHR in a case study analyzing the hazard of mortality in patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction at hospitals in Ontario, Canada. We provide R code for computing the MHR. The MHR is a useful and intuitive measure for expressing cluster heterogeneity in the outcome and, thereby, estimating general contextual effects in multilevel survival analysis.
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| 6. |
- Bodnar, Olha, senior lecturer, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Bayesian estimation in random effects meta‐analysis using a non‐informative prior
- 2017
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Ingår i: Statistics in Medicine. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0277-6715 .- 1097-0258. ; 36:2, s. 378-399
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Pooling information from multiple, independent studies (meta‐analysis) adds great value to medical research. Random effects models are widely used for this purpose. However, there are many different ways of estimating model parameters, and the choice of estimation procedure may be influential upon the conclusions of the meta‐analysis. In this paper, we describe a recently proposed Bayesian estimation procedure and compare it with a profile likelihood method and with the DerSimonian–Laird and Mandel–Paule estimators including the Knapp–Hartung correction. The Bayesian procedure uses a non‐informative prior for the overall mean and the between‐study standard deviation that is determined by the Berger and Bernardo reference prior principle. The comparison of these procedures focuses on the frequentist properties of interval estimates for the overall mean. The results of our simulation study reveal that the Bayesian approach is a promising alternative producing more accurate interval estimates than those three conventional procedures for meta‐analysis. The Bayesian procedure is also illustrated using three examples of meta‐analysis involving real data.
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