Does adjustment for measurement error induce positive bias if there is no true association?

Details Does adjustment for measurement error induce positive bias if there is no true association? Does adjustment for measurement error induce positive bias if there is no true association?

2009-02-06

arxiv.org/abs/0902.1193v1

Statistics

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Area of application: epidemiology; 9 pages; 3 tables

Scientific paper

This article is a response to an off-the-record discussion that I had at an international meeting of epidemiologists. It centered on a concern, perhaps widely spread, that measurement error adjustment methods can induce positive bias in results of epidemiological studies when there is no true association. I trace the possible history of this supposition and test it in a simulation study of both continuous and binary health outcomes under a classical multiplicative measurement error model. A Bayesian measurement adjustment method is used. The main conclusion is that adjustment for the presumed measurement error does not 'induce' positive associations, especially if the focus of the interpretation of the result is taken away from the point estimate. This is in line with properties of earlier measurement error adjustment methods introduced to epidemiologists in the 1990s. An heuristic argument is provided to support the generalizability of this observation in the Bayesian framework. I find that when there is no true association, positive bias can only be induced by indefensible manipulation of the priors, such that they dominate the data. The misconception about bias induced by measurement error adjustment should be more clearly explained during the training of epidemiologists to ensure the appropriate (and wider) use of measurement error correction procedures. The simple message that can be derived from this paper is: 'Do not focus on point estimates, but mind the gap between boundaries that reflect variability in the estimate'. And of course: 'Treat measurement error as a tractable problem that deserves much more attention than just a qualitative (throw-away) discussion'.

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