Tutorial in biostatistics: Analyzing associations between total plasma homocysteine and B vitamins using optimal categorization and segmented regression

Authors

Heejung Bang, Weill Cornell Medicine
Madhu Mazumdar, Weill Cornell Medicine
J. David Spence, Robarts Research InstituteFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1-2006

Journal

Neuroepidemiology

Volume

27

Issue

4

First Page

188

Last Page

200

URL with Digital Object Identifier

10.1159/000096149

Abstract

Data analysts consider standard regression models (e.g., generalized linear model) or nonparametric smoothing techniques (e.g., loess or splines) when examining the association between two variables. Before this step, a quantile-based summarization is typically used for exploring the exposure-response relationship. Unfortunately, these exploratory approaches may not be optimal or efficient for guiding the formal analysis in many biological and nutritional data settings. We suggest a recently developed method for selection of cutpoints as a tool of data summary and segmented regression as a modeling approach in the analysis of plasma total homocysteine and related vitamins. These methods are often complementary in discovering the underlying complex pattern of association. Copyright © 2006 S. Karger AG.