Dies endogeneity matter? A comparison of empirical analyses with and without control for endogeneity.
OBJECTIVE
Using data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey, we perform an empirical investigation of the effects of endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity in the analysis of health outcomes.


METHODS
First, we lay a theoretical background for this analysis and develop a set of expectations regarding the effects of ignoring endogeneity. Then, by modeling the effect of infant-feeding patterns on time to resumption of menses, we perform parallel analyses with and without control for endogeneity.


RESULTS
We show that in this analysis, as far as the effects of endogeneity are concerned, empirical results do accord with theoretical expectations. There are differences in parameter estimates between models, that lead to somewhat different interpretations.


CONCLUSIONS
We discuss the importance and implications of these findings for epidemiological studies of health outcomes. We outline the steps involved in such an analysis and discuss the practical limitations of the methods, as well as the possible gains.
Zohoori
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Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27516, USA.
D000568:Amenorrhea / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D015982:Bias; D001942:Breast Feeding; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D017059:Models, Econometric; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010298:Parity; D010679:Philippines / Q000453:epidemiology; D011153:Population; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity