Curious phenomena in Bayesian adjustment for exposure misclassification.
Many epidemiologic investigations involve some discussion of exposure misclassification, but rarely is there an attempt to adjust for misclassification formally in the statistical analysis. Rather, investigators tend to rely on intuition to comment qualitatively on how misclassification might impact their findings. We point out several ways in which intuition might fail, in the context of unmatched case-control analysis with non-differential exposure misclassification. Particularly, we focus on how intuition can conflict with the results of a Bayesian analysis that accounts for the various uncertainties at hand. First, the Bayesian adjustment for misclassification can weaken the evidence about the direction of an exposure-disease association. Second, admitting uncertainty about the misclassification parameters can lead to narrower interval estimates concerning the association. We focus on the simple setting of unmatched case-control analysis with binary exposure and without adjustment for confounders, though much of our discussion should be relevant more generally.
Gustafson
Paul
P
Department of Statistics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2. gustaf@stat.ubc.ca
Greenland
Sander
S
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D015982:Bias; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D011247:Pregnancy; D013398:Sudden Infant Death / Q000209:etiology
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents