title: Classifying patients by their characteristics and clinical presentations; the use of latent class analysis.
abstract: In this article, we introduce the general statistical analysis approach known as latent class analysis and discuss some of the issues associated with this type of analysis in practice. Two recent examples from the respiratory health literature are used to highlight the types of research questions that have been addressed using this approach.
authors.affiliation: Victorian Centre for Biostatistics (ViCBiostat), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Darren
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wraith
authors.forename: Rory
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wolfe
mesh_terms: D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy
keywords: factor analysis; growth trajectory model; latent class analysis; mixture model