Tutorial in Biostatistics: The use of generalized additive models to evaluate alcohol consumption as an exposure variable.

ABSTRACT: Alcohol consumption is a commonly studied risk factor for many poor health outcomes. Various instruments exist to measure alcohol consumption, including the AUDIT-C, Single Alcohol Screening Questionnaire (SASQ) and Timeline Followback. The information gathered by these instruments is often simplified and analyzed as a dichotomous measure, risking the loss of information of potentially prognostic value. We discuss generalized additive models (GAM) as a useful tool to understand the association between alcohol consumption and a health outcome. We demonstrate how this analytic strategy can guide the development of a regression model that retains maximal information about alcohol consumption. We illustrate these approaches using data from the Russia ARCH (Alcohol Research Collaboration on HIV

SUBMITTER: White LF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7171980 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature