Commentary: On measurement error, PSA doubling time, and prostate cancer.

Exposure measurement error is a pervasive problem for epidemiology research projects designed to provide valid and precise statistical evidence supporting postulated exposure-disease relationships of interest. The purpose of this commentary is to highlight an important real-life example of this exposure measurement error problem and to provide a simple and useful diagnostic tool for physicians and their patients that corrects for the exposure measurement error. More specifically, prostate-specific antigen doubling time (PSADT) is a widely used measure for guiding future treatment options for patients with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer.

Starting the Conversation: Are Campus Sexual Assault Policies Related to the Prevalence of Campus Sexual Assault?

One goal of university campus sexual assault (CSA) policies is to help prevent CSA. Federal guidance in the 2014 White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault Checklist for Campus Sexual Misconduct Policies suggests 10 elements for inclusion in CSA policies (e.g.

Numeric score-based conditional and overall change-in-status indices for ordered categorical data.

Planned interventions and/or natural conditions often effect change on an ordinal categorical outcome (e.g., symptom severity).

Assortativity coefficient-based estimation of population patterns of sexual mixing when cluster size is informative.

Objectives: Population sexual mixing patterns can be quantified using Newman's assortativity coefficient (r). Suggested methods for estimating the SE for r may lead to inappropriate statistical conclusions in situations where intracluster correlation is ignored and/or when cluster size is predictive of the response. We describe a computer-intensive, but highly accessible, within-cluster resampling approach for providing a valid large-sample estimated SE for r and an associated 95% CI.

Approximate and Pseudo-Likelihood Analysis for Logistic Regression Using External Validation Data to Model Log Exposure.

A common goal in environmental epidemiologic studies is to undertake logistic regression modeling to associate a continuous measure of exposure with binary disease status, adjusting for covariates. A frequent complication is that exposure may only be measurable indirectly, through a collection of subject-specific variables assumed associated with it. Motivated by a specific study to investigate the association between lung function and exposure to metal working fluids, we focus on a multiplicative-lognormal structural measurement error scenario and approaches to address it when external validation data are available.

Somatic symptoms among US adolescent females: associations with sexual and physical violence exposure.

The objective of this study is to examine the association between physical and sexual violence exposure and somatic symptoms among female adolescents. We studied a nationally representative sample of 8,531 females, aged 11-21 years, who participated in the 1994-1995 Wave I of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Female adolescents were asked how often they had experienced 16 specific somatic symptoms during the past 12 months.

Intimate partner violence and depressive symptoms before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and after infant delivery: an exploratory study.

Women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy also tend to experience depressive symptoms. Unfortunately, little is known about how victimized women's levels of depressive symptoms change longitudinally before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and after infant delivery. In addition, few studies have used a comparison group of women to determine if levels of depressive symptoms among victimized women differ from depressive symptom levels in women who have not experienced IPV.

Low-dose metabolism of benzene in humans: science and obfuscation.

Benzene is a ubiquitous air pollutant that causes human leukemia and hematotoxic effects. Although the mechanism by which benzene causes toxicity is unclear, metabolism is required. A series of articles by Kim et al.

GRADE guidelines: 13. Preparing summary of findings tables and evidence profiles-continuous outcomes.

Presenting continuous outcomes in Summary of Findings tables presents particular challenges to interpretation. When each study uses the same outcome measure, and the units of that measure are intuitively interpretable (e.g.

Patterns of intimate partner violence victimization from adolescence to young adulthood in a nationally representative sample.

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization from adolescence to young adulthood, and document associations with selected sociodemographic and experiential factors.

Methods: We used prospective data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to group 4134 respondents reporting only opposite-sex romantic or sexual relationships in adolescence and young adulthood into four victimization patterns: no IPV victimization, adolescent-limited IPV victimization, young adult onset IPV victimization, and adolescent-young adult persistent IPV victimization.

Results: Forty percent of respondents reported physical or sexual victimization by young adulthood.

Comparing urinary biomarkers of airborne and dermal exposure to polycyclic aromatic compounds in asphalt-exposed workers.

When working with hot mix asphalt, road pavers are exposed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) through the inhalation of vapors and particulate matter (PM) and through dermal contact with PM and contaminated surfaces. Several PAHs with four to six rings are potent carcinogens which reside in these particulate emissions. Since urinary biomarkers of large PAHs are rarely detectable in asphalt workers, attention has focused upon urinary levels of the more volatile and abundant two-ring and three-ring PAHs as potential biomarkers of PAH exposure.

Investigation of PAH biomarkers in the urine of workers exposed to hot asphalt.

Airborne emissions from hot asphalt contain mixtures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), including several carcinogens. We investigated urinary biomarkers of three PAHs, namely naphthalene (Nap), phenanthrene (Phe), and pyrene (Pyr) in 20 road-paving workers exposed to hot asphalt and in 6 road milling workers who were not using hot asphalt (reference group). Our analysis included baseline urine samples as well as postshift, bedtime, and morning samples collected over three consecutive days.

Selenium, folate, and colon cancer.

Selenium is an essential trace element that has been implicated in cancer risk; however, study results have been inconsistent with regard to colon cancer. Our objectives were to 1) investigate the association between selenium and colon cancer, 2) evaluate possible effect measure modifiers, and 3) evaluate potential biases associated with the use of postdiagnostic serum selenium measures. The North Carolina Colon Cancer Study is a large population-based, case-control study of colon cancer in North Carolina between 1996 and 2000 (n = 1,691).

Correlates of antioxidant nutrients and oxidative DNA damage differ by race in a cross-sectional study of healthy African American and white adults.

Although antioxidant nutrients and oxidative DNA damage have been associated with carcinogenesis, few studies have investigated the factors that influence antioxidant intake and oxidative DNA damage in racially diverse populations. Demographic, behavioral, and diet-related psychosocial correlates of plasma antioxidant (carotenoids, vitamin C, and vitamin E) concentrations and oxidative DNA damage were examined using data from a cross-sectional study of 147 generally healthy, nonsmoking African American and white adults in North Carolina, aged 20 to 45 years. All participants completed self-administered demographic, diet, and health questionnaires and provided semifasting (> or = 6 hours) blood samples.

Like parent, like child: child food and beverage choices during role playing.

Objective: To examine food and beverage choices of preschool-aged children.

Design: Semistructured observational study. While pretending to be adults during a role-play scenario, children selected food and beverage items from a miniature grocery store stocked with 73 different products, of which 47 foods and beverages were examined in this analysis.

Quantifying the relative importance of predictors in multiple linear regression analyses for public health studies.

Multiple linear regression analysis is widely used in many scientific fields, including public health, to evaluate how an outcome or response variable is related to a set of predictors. As a result, researchers often need to assess "relative importance" of a predictor by comparing the contributions made by other individual predictors in a particular regression model. Hence, development of valid statistical methods to estimate the relative importance of a set of predictors is of great interest.

Accumulation of M1dG DNA adducts after chronic exposure to PCBs, but not from acute exposure to polychlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons.

Oxidative DNA damage is one of the key events thought to be involved in mutation and cancer. The present study examined the accumulation of M1dG, 3-(2'-deoxy-beta-D-erythro-pentofuranosyl)-pyrimido[1,2-a]-purin-10(3H)-one, DNA adducts after single dose or 1-year exposure to polyhalogenated aromatic hydrocarbons (PHAH) in order to evaluate the potential role of oxidative DNA damage in PHAH toxicity and carcinogenicity. The effect of PHAH exposure on the number of M1dG adducts was explored initially in female mice exposed to a single dose of either 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) or a PHAH mixture.

Physical and sexual violence among North Carolina women: associations with physical health, mental health, and functional impairment.

Objective: This study examines links between women's experiences of violence during adulthood (including physical and sexual violence) and women's physical health, mental health, and functional status.

Methods: Data were analyzed from a representative sample of 9,830 North Carolina women surveyed by the North Carolina Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).

Results: One-quarter of the women experienced violence as adults, with current or ex-partners being the most common perpetrators.

Low utilization of circulating glucose after food withdrawal in Snell dwarf mice.

Glucose metabolism is altered in long-lived people and mice. Although it is clear that there is an association between altered glucose metabolism and longevity, it is not known whether this link is causal or not. Our current hypothesis is that decreased fasting glucose utilization may increase longevity by reducing oxygen radical production, a potential cause of aging.

Child maltreatment in enlisted soldiers' families during combat-related deployments.

Context: Parental stress is believed to play a critical role in child maltreatment, and deployment is often stressful for military families.

Objective: To examine the association between combat-related deployment and rates of child maltreatment in families of enlisted soldiers in the US Army who had 1 or more substantiated reports of child maltreatment.

Design And Setting: Descriptive case series of substantiated incidents of parental child maltreatment in 1771 families of enlisted US Army soldiers who experienced at least 1 combat deployment between September 2001 and December 2004.

Partner violence among women before, during, and after pregnancy: multiple opportunities for intervention.

Objectives: Although partner violence during pregnancy has serious consequences for women's health, little is known about how physical partner violence may change throughout pregnancy transitions. Even less is known about changes in sexual and psychological partner violence throughout pregnancy transitions. In addition, few research studies on pregnancy and partner violence have examined these changes among both victimized women (i.

Coarse particulate matter (PM2.5-10) affects heart rate variability, blood lipids, and circulating eosinophils in adults with asthma.

Introduction: We investigated whether markers of airway and systemic inflammation, as well as heart rate variability (HRV) in asthmatics, change in response to fluctuations in ambient particulate matter (PM) in the coarse [PM with aerodynamic diameter 2.5-10 microm (PM(2.5-10))] and fine (PM(2.