title: Bias and power in group-based epidemiologic studies of low-back pain exposure and outcome--effects of study size and exposure measurement efforts.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Exposure-outcome studies, for instance on work-related low-back pain (LBP), often classify workers into groups for which exposures are estimated from measurements on a sample of workers within or outside the specific study. The present study investigated the influence on bias and power in exposure-outcome associations of the sizes of the total study population and the sample used to estimate exposures.
  
  
  METHODS
  At baseline, lifting, trunk flexion, and trunk rotation were observed for 371 of 1131 workers allocated to 19 a-priori defined occupational groups. LBP (dichotomous) was reported by all workers during 3 years of follow-up. All three exposures were associated with LBP in this parent study (P < 0.01). All 21 combinations of n = 10, 20, 30 workers per group with an outcome, and k = 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 workers actually being observed were investigated using bootstrapping, repeating each combination 10000 times. Odds ratios (OR) with P values were determined for each of these virtual studies. Average OR and statistical power (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01) was determined from the bootstrap distributions at each (n, k) combination.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For lifting and flexed trunk, studies including n ≥ 20 workers, with k ≥ 5 observed, led to an almost unbiased OR and a power >0.80 (P level = 0.05). A similar performance required n ≥ 30 workers for rotated trunk. Small numbers of observed workers (k) resulted in biased OR, while power was, in general, more sensitive to the total number of workers (n).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In epidemiologic studies using a group-based exposure assessment strategy, statistical performance may be sufficient if outcome is obtained from a reasonably large number of workers, even if exposure is estimated from only few workers per group.
authors.forename: Pieter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Coenen
authors.affiliation: 4.Centre for Musculoskeletal Research, Department of Occupational and Public Health Sciences, University of Gävle, SE-801 76 Gävle, Sweden.
authors.forename: Svend Erik
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Mathiassen
authors.affiliation: 2.MOVE Research Institute Amsterdam, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, van der Boechorststraat 9, NL-1081 BT Amsterdam, the Netherlands 3.Body@Work, Research Center on Physical Activity, Work and Health, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Idsart
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kingma
authors.affiliation: 3.Body@Work, Research Center on Physical Activity, Work and Health, the Netherlands 5.Department of Public and Occupational Health, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, van der Boechorststraat 7, NL-1081 BT Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cécile R L
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Boot
authors.affiliation: 3.Body@Work, Research Center on Physical Activity, Work and Health, the Netherlands 6.TNO Healthy Living, Leiden, Schipholweg 77-89 NL-2316 ZL Leiden, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Paulien M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Bongers
authors.affiliation: 2.MOVE Research Institute Amsterdam, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, van der Boechorststraat 9, NL-1081 BT Amsterdam, the Netherlands 7.King Abdulaziz University, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia j.vandieen@fbw.vu.nl.
authors.forename: Jaap H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: van Dieën
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015982:Bias; D001699:Biometry / Q000379:methods*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D006801:Humans; D017770:Lifting / Q000009:adverse effects; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011187:Posture; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D016008:Statistical Distributions; D060726:Torso
keywords: epidemiology; ergonomics; exposure; exposure assessment; group-based measurement strategy; low-back pain; musculoskeletal injury; precision