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Abstract Details

Activity Number: 20
Type: Topic Contributed
Date/Time: Sunday, July 29, 2012 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Epidemiology
Abstract - #306543
Title: Effect Modification Using Latent Mixture Analysis
Author(s): Tanzy Love*+ and Sally Thurston and Philip W. Davidson
Companies: University of Rochester and University of Rochester and University of Rochester
Address: Department of Biostatistics and Comp Bio, Rochester, NY, , United States
Keywords: mixture regression ; Seychelles Child Development Study ; latent variables ; socioeconomic status ; methylmercury
Abstract:

The Seychelles Child Development Study (SCDS) is examining associations between prenatal exposure to low doses of methylmercury (MeHg) from maternal fish consumption and children's developmental outcomes. Secondary analysis from this study found significant interactions between MeHg and both caregiver IQ and income on 19 month IQ (Davidson et al. 1999). These results are dependent on the categories chosen for these covariates and are difficult to interpret collectively. We estimate effect modification of the association between prenatal MeHg exposure and 19 month IQ using a general formulation of mixture regression. Our model creates a latent categorical group membership variable which interacts with MeHg in predicting the outcome. Group membership and the regression coefficients are estimated simultaneously. We also fit the same outcome model when in addition the latent variable is assumed to be a parametric function of three distinct socioeconomic measures. The results show that children of low income mothers with high IQ and a stimulating home environment have with a different response to prenatal MeHg exposure than other children.


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