Regression for skewed biomarker outcomes subject to pooling.

ABSTRACT: Epidemiological studies involving biomarkers are often hindered by prohibitively expensive laboratory tests. Strategically pooling specimens prior to performing these lab assays has been shown to effectively reduce cost with minimal information loss in a logistic regression setting. When the goal is to perform regression with a continuous biomarker as the outcome, regression analysis of pooled specimens may not be straightforward, particularly if the outcome is right-skewed. In such cases, we demonstrate that a slight modification of a standard multiple linear regression model for poolwise data can provide valid and precise coefficient estimates when pools are formed by combining biospecimens from subjects with identical covariate values. When these x-homogeneous pools cannot be formed, we

SUBMITTER: Mitchell EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3988986 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature