title: Important issues related to using pooled samples for environmental chemical biomonitoring.
abstract: Pooling samples for analysis was first proposed in the 1940s to reduce analytical measurement costs associated with screening World War II recruits for syphilis. Later, it progressed to more complex screening strategies, to population prevalence estimation for discrete quantities, and to population mean estimation for continuous quantities. Recently, pooled samples have also been used to provide efficient alternatives for gene microarray analyses, epidemiologic studies of biomarkers of exposure, and characterization of populations regarding environmental chemical exposures. In this study, we address estimation and bias issues related to using pooled-sample variance information from an auxiliary source to augment pooled-sample variance estimates from the study of interest. The findings are illustrated by using pooled samples from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2001-2002 to assess exposures to perfluorooctanesulfonate and other polyfluoroalkyl compounds in the U.S. population.
authors.affiliation: National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Service, U.S Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. spc1@cdc.gov
authors.forename: Samuel P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Caudill
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D017738:Alkanesulfonic Acids / Q000097:blood; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015982:Bias; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005466:Fluorocarbons / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016008:Statistical Distributions; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D017738:Alkanesulfonic Acids; D005466:Fluorocarbons; C076994:perfluorooctane sulfonic acid