Validation of the Women's Health Initiative Insomnia Rating Scale in a multicenter controlled clinical trial.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the construct validity of the five-item Women's Health Initiative Insomnia Rating Scale (WHIIRS) by comparing women taking hormone therapy (HT) versus those taking a placebo and by comparing women known to differ in vasomotor symptoms.

Methods: The WHIIRS was included in two phase III randomized trials intended to evaluate the efficacy of a combination estradiol plus and norethindrone acetate transdermal delivery system in reducing vasomotor symptoms. In all, 850 healthy postmenopausal women participated in these studies.

Theorizing about causes at the individual level while estimating effects at the population level: implications for prevention.

The dominant philosophy of modern epidemiology is individualism, despite the limitations of epidemiologic tools and methods when considering the individual level. We pursue information on increasingly reductionist causes in our search for knowledge of causes of specific cases. Philosophical reasoning and empiric evidence suggest that this search may not be as fruitful as proponents claim.

Validation of the Harvard Cancer Risk Index: a prediction tool for individual cancer risk.

Objective: Risk appraisal tools are increasingly being used in the clinical setting to estimate individuals' risks of developing and dying from diseases. The Harvard Cancer Risk Index is one such tool constructed to predict the risks of individuals, aged 40 and above, for developing the leading types of cancer in U.S.

Breast cancer risk prediction with a log-incidence model: evaluation of accuracy.

Objective: We examined whether a breast cancer risk prediction model other than the Gail et al. model performs better at discriminating between women who will and who will not develop the disease.

Methods: We applied the two published versions of the Rosner and Colditz log-incidence model of breast cancer, developed on data from the Nurses' Health Study, to the estimation of 5-year risk for the period 1992 to 1997 in the same cohort.