The relative risk in a cohort study with Poisson cases.
This paper deals with making statistical inference about the relative risk (or risk ratio) in a cohort (or prospective) study with dichotomous exposure when the number of cases is a Poisson distributed variable. The exact procedure for testing the null hypothesis for the relative risk and the exact computation of its confidence interval for a single 2 X 2 table is presented. Maximum likelihood methods and the homogeneity test are presented for the common risk ratio when data is stratified in several 2 X 2 tables. These methods are based upon a sufficient statistic and therefore are considered proper statistical alternatives to the more descriptive epidemiological measures such as (in)directly standardized mortality (morbidity) ratios. All computations can be done on a programmable pocket calculator. With the HP-41 CV more than 70 strata can be distinguished.
Mulder
P G
PG
Institute of Biostatistics, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D009426:Netherlands; D011336:Probability; D012306:Risk