Latency estimation for chronic disease risk: a damped exponential weighting model.

ABSTRACT: Identifying the susceptible period when environmental factors affect disease risk is essential for understanding disease etiology. Most existing epidemiologic studies use oversimplified summaries of time-dependent exposures such as baseline or most current exposure, or the cumulative average of exposure over available follow-up periods. In this paper, we introduce a damped exponential weighting model for estimating optimal exposure weights for different time intervals. This model can accommodate flexible patterns of weights and can be fit using standard software. We applied the model to assess the latency of BMI and alcohol for post-menopausal breast cancer based on 30-year exposure history in the Nurses' Health Study. We have also performed a simulation study to assess the validity of the

SUBMITTER: Michels K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7530062 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature