title: Health risks and air pollution--error analysis for a cross-sectional mortality study.
abstract: An attempt is made to analyze in quantitative terms the uncertainties in multiple regression estimates of the effects of air pollution on death rates. A range of factors--statistical fluctuations in numbers of deaths, differences in local age distribution, differences in smoking habits, errors in estimated pollution levels, migration, and variability of the characterization of socioeconomic effects--are assessed as potential sources of error. Both the precision and the robustness of the regression calculation are shown to be poor. Examples and illustrative calculations are given based on a study of U. K. death rates around the 1971 Census.
mesh_terms: D000397:Air Pollution; D001991:Bronchitis / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012306:Risk; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors