Search results for "Study Design"

How many longitudinal covariate measurements are needed for risk prediction?

2014

Abstract Objective In epidemiologic follow-up studies, many key covariates, such as smoking, use of medication, blood pressure, and cholesterol, are time varying. Because of practical and financial limitations, time-varying covariates cannot be measured continuously, but only at certain prespecified time points. We study how the number of these longitudinal measurements can be chosen cost-efficiently by evaluating the usefulness of the measurements for risk prediction. Study Design and Setting The usefulness is addressed by measuring the improvement in model discrimination between models using different amounts of longitudinal information. We use simulated follow-up data and the data from t…