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Fundamentals of epidemiology - an evolving text - Are you looking ...

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3,154 male<br />

m<strong>an</strong>agers<br />

<strong>an</strong>d white<br />

collar<br />

employees<br />

w/o CHD<br />

at baseline<br />

Figure 1<br />

Western Collaborative Group Study 8-1/2 year follow-up<br />

2,648<br />

enrolled<br />

<strong>an</strong>d followed<br />

up<br />

1,307<br />

Type A<br />

1,341<br />

Type B<br />

178<br />

new cases<br />

1,129<br />

no CHD<br />

79<br />

new cases<br />

506<br />

lost to<br />

1,262<br />

follow-up no CHD<br />

8 1/2 years<br />

Table 1<br />

Relationship <strong>of</strong> CHD to Behavior Pattern<br />

Behavior pattern<br />

A B Total<br />

CHD cases 178 79 257<br />

No m<strong>an</strong>ifest CHD 1,129 1,262 2,391<br />

Total 1,307 1,341 2,648<br />

Since these data come from a cohort study, we would <strong>an</strong>alyze them by estimating the incidence <strong>of</strong><br />

CHD for the Type A <strong>an</strong>d Type B groups. Even though the risk period for CHD extends beyond<br />

the period <strong>of</strong> observation, we will use cumulative incidence (CI) for simplicity. In these data, the CI<br />

is 178/1307 = 0.14 for the Type A group, <strong>an</strong>d 79/1341 = 0.06 for the Type B group. The relative<br />

risk (risk ratio, cumulative incidence ratio) is therefore 0.14/0.06 = 2.3<br />

_____________________________________________________________________________________________<br />

www.epidemiolog.net, © Victor J. Schoenbach 2000 11. Multicausality: Confounding - 340<br />

rev. 10/28/2000, 11/2/2000, 5/11/2001

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