Bootstrap method-based estimation on the confidence interval for additive interaction in cohort studies / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Interaction assessment is an important step in epidemiological analysis. When etiological study is carried out, the logarithmic models such as logistic model or Cox proportional hazard model are commonly used to estimate the independent effects of the risk factors. However,estimating interaction between risk factors by the regression coefficient of the product term is on multiplicative scale, and for public-health purposes, it is supposed to be on additive scale or departure from additivity. This paper illustrates with a example of cohort study by fitting Cox proportional hazard model to estimate three measures for additive interaction which presented by Rothman.Adopting the S-Plus application with a built-in Bootstrap function, it is convenient to estimate the confidence interval for additive interaction. Furthermore, this method can avoid the exaggerated estimation by using ORs in a cohort study to gain better precision. When using the complex combination models between additive interaction and multiplicative interaction, it is reasonable to choose the former one when the result is inconsistent.