An Evaluation of Different Methods in Epidemiologic Studies of Radiation Risks

✍ Scribed by F. Schindel

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 715 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0323-3847
• DOI: 10.1002/bimj.4710290108

✦ Synopsis

The probability of detecting possible late effects of ionizing radiation in human populations depends on the size of exposure in the study population and on the epidemiologic evaluation method used. This is not only due to the mathematical or statistical properties of the method, but also to the choice of the control population, which may be either external (usuelly large) or internal (usually not BO large). Moreover, the use of a large external control population often results in an increasing influence of selection factom expressing themselves e.g. through the 'healthy worker' effect. I n this paper three different methods usually employed in follow-up studies are reviewed: the calculation of Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMR). a contingency table analysis baaed on Person-Yeare.(PY) and the comparison of Cumulative Mean Dosee (CMD) within different subcohorta. The methoda are illustrated with a simple radiation risk model; nevertheless, most of the conclusions apply to non-radiation risk studiee aa well. The CMD-method is shown to be heavily selection sensitive.