Issues with incorrect computing of population attributable fraction (PAF) in a global perspective on coal-fired power plants and burden of lung cancer

Abstract All observational studies are liable to confounding and Levin’s formula becomes useless in practice for unbiasedly estimating PAF. With respect to causal interpretation of PAF in public health setting, unbiased estimation of PAF requires several assumptions which are ignored in practice. We...

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Main Authors: Ahmad Khosravi, Mohammad Ali Mansournia
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2019-06-01
Series:Environmental Health
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12940-019-0490-6
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spelling doaj-471f190acc9740cd8a76e018cca6b33b2020-11-25T03:37:30ZengBMCEnvironmental Health1476-069X2019-06-011811210.1186/s12940-019-0490-6Issues with incorrect computing of population attributable fraction (PAF) in a global perspective on coal-fired power plants and burden of lung cancerAhmad Khosravi0Mohammad Ali Mansournia1Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shahroud University of Medical SciencesDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Tehran University of Medical SciencesAbstract All observational studies are liable to confounding and Levin’s formula becomes useless in practice for unbiasedly estimating PAF. With respect to causal interpretation of PAF in public health setting, unbiased estimation of PAF requires several assumptions which are ignored in practice. We recommend using Miettinen PAF formula with careful consideration about possibility of bias in study design and analysis.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12940-019-0490-6Population attributable fractionConfounding, ecological study
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Ahmad Khosravi
Mohammad Ali Mansournia
spellingShingle Ahmad Khosravi
Mohammad Ali Mansournia
Issues with incorrect computing of population attributable fraction (PAF) in a global perspective on coal-fired power plants and burden of lung cancer
Environmental Health
Population attributable fraction
Confounding, ecological study
author_facet Ahmad Khosravi
Mohammad Ali Mansournia
author_sort Ahmad Khosravi
title Issues with incorrect computing of population attributable fraction (PAF) in a global perspective on coal-fired power plants and burden of lung cancer
title_short Issues with incorrect computing of population attributable fraction (PAF) in a global perspective on coal-fired power plants and burden of lung cancer
title_full Issues with incorrect computing of population attributable fraction (PAF) in a global perspective on coal-fired power plants and burden of lung cancer
title_fullStr Issues with incorrect computing of population attributable fraction (PAF) in a global perspective on coal-fired power plants and burden of lung cancer
title_full_unstemmed Issues with incorrect computing of population attributable fraction (PAF) in a global perspective on coal-fired power plants and burden of lung cancer
title_sort issues with incorrect computing of population attributable fraction (paf) in a global perspective on coal-fired power plants and burden of lung cancer
publisher BMC
series Environmental Health
issn 1476-069X
publishDate 2019-06-01
description Abstract All observational studies are liable to confounding and Levin’s formula becomes useless in practice for unbiasedly estimating PAF. With respect to causal interpretation of PAF in public health setting, unbiased estimation of PAF requires several assumptions which are ignored in practice. We recommend using Miettinen PAF formula with careful consideration about possibility of bias in study design and analysis.
topic Population attributable fraction
Confounding, ecological study
url http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12940-019-0490-6
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