Identifying potentially undiagnosed nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Development of a predictive algorithm using claims data.

Nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease (NTMLD) is a debilitating disease. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the leading comorbidity associated with NTMLD in the United States. Their similarities in symptoms and overlapping radiological findings may delay NTMLD diagnosis in patients with COPD.

Required sample size to detect mediation in 3-level implementation studies.

Background: Statistical tests of mediation are important for advancing implementation science; however, little research has examined the sample sizes needed to detect mediation in 3-level designs (e.g., organization, provider, patient) that are common in implementation research.

From Data to Causes III: Bayesian Priors for General Cross-Lagged Panel Models (GCLM).

This article describes some potential uses of Bayesian estimation for time-series and panel data models by incorporating information from prior probabilities (i.e., priors) in addition to observed data.

Mapping Activity Patterns to Quantify Risk of Violent Assault in Urban Environments.

Background: We collected detailed activity paths of urban youth to investigate the dynamic interplay between their lived experiences, time spent in different environments, and risk of violent assault.

Methods: We mapped activity paths of 10- to 24-year-olds, including 143 assault patients shot with a firearm, 206 assault patients injured with other types of weapons, and 283 community controls, creating a step-by-step mapped record of how, when, where, and with whom they spent time over a full day from waking up until going to bed or being assaulted. Case-control analyses compared cases with time-matched controls to identify risk factors for assault.

Effects of Achieving Target Measures in Rheumatoid Arthritis on Functional Status, Quality of Life, and Resource Utilization: Analysis of Clinical Practice Data.

Objective: To evaluate associations between achieving guideline-recommended targets of disease activity, defined by the Disease Activity Score in 28 joints using C-reactive protein level (DAS28-CRP) <2.6, the Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDAI) ≤3.3, or the Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) ≤2.

When one spouse has an affair, who is more likely to leave?

Objective: We examine whether having an affair around the time a marriage broke up is associated with being the person who wanted the divorce more or the person who was left. We also examine predictors of having an affair around the end of the marriage.

Methods: We use the National Survey of Families and Households, using each ex-spouse's reports of which spouse wanted the divorce more and whether either was having an affair around the end of the marriage.

Fears of violence during morning travel to school.

Purpose: Children's safety as they travel to school is a concern nationwide. We investigated how safe children felt from the risk of being assaulted during morning travel to school.

Methods: Children between 10 and 18 years old were recruited in Philadelphia and interviewed with the aid of geographic information system (GIS) mapping software about a recent trip to school, situational characteristics, and how safe they felt as they travelled based on a 10-point item (1 = very unsafe, 10 = very safe).

Overall perceived health predicts risk of hospitalizations and death in adults with heart failure: a prospective longitudinal study.

Background: Patient overall perception of health may provide an effective early warning for risk of hospitalization and death among heart failure patients.

Objective: Determine whether overall perceived health predicts all-cause hospitalization or death in heart failure patients after adjusting for confounding factors in a sample of adults with heart failure.

Design: Prospective, longitudinal, observational study.

Stimulants and cardiovascular events in youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Objective: This study examined associations between stimulant use and risk of cardiovascular events and symptoms in youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and compared the risks associated with methylphenidate and amphetamines.

Method: Claims were reviewed of privately insured young people 6 to 21 years old without known cardiovascular risk factors (n = 171,126). A day-level cohort analysis evaluated the risk of cardiovascular events after a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in relation to stimulant exposures.

She left, he left: how employment and satisfaction affect women's and men's decisions to leave marriages.

Studies examining determinants of divorce have largely ignored differences between factors that elevate wives' and husbands' initiation of divorce. The authors use longitudinal data and a latent class model embedded in a competing-risks event history model to assess distinct predictors of wives and husbands leaving marriages. They find that when men are not employed, either spouse is more likely to leave.

Physical and mental health, cognitive development, and health care use by housing status of low-income young children in 20 American cities: a prospective cohort study.

Objectives: We assessed the independent effect of homeless and doubled-up episodes on physical and mental health, cognitive development, and health care use among children.

Methods: We used data from 4 waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, involving a sample of 2631 low-income children in 20 large US cities who have been followed since birth. Multivariate analyses involved logistic regression using the hybrid method to include both fixed and random effects.

Combined analysis of retrospective and prospective occurrences in cohort studies: HIV-1 serostatus and incident pneumonia.

Background: The authors show how information collected on retrospective occurrence times may be combined with prospective occurrence times in the analysis of recurrent events from cohort studies.

Methods: We demonstrate how the observed data can be expanded from one to two records per participant and account for the within-individual dependence when estimating variances. We illustrate our methods using data from the Women's Interagency HIV Study, which recorded 384 retrospective and 352 prospective occurrences of pneumonia in 9478 retrospective and 7857 prospective person-years among 2610 adult women.

Mortality after the hospitalization of a spouse.

Background: The illness of a spouse can affect the health of a caregiving partner. We examined the association between the hospitalization of a spouse and a partner's risk of death among elderly people.

Methods: We studied 518,240 couples who were enrolled in Medicare in 1993.

Estimation of cumulative odds ratios.

Purpose: Standard estimation of ordered odds ratios requires the constraint that the etiologic effects of exposure are homogenous across thresholds of the ordered response. We present a method to relax this often-unrealistic constraint.

Methods: The kernel of the proposed method is the expansion of observed data into "person-thresholds.

Missing data techniques for structural equation modeling.

As with other statistical methods, missing data often create major problems for the estimation of structural equation models (SEMs). Conventional methods such as listwise or pairwise deletion generally do a poor job of using all the available information. However, structural equation modelers are fortunate that many programs for estimating SEMs now have maximum likelihood methods for handling missing data in an optimal fashion.

Factors associated with distress in urban residential fire survivors.

Purpose: To identify factors associated with recovery in a sample of urban residential fire survivors.

Design And Methods: 440 survivors, of residential fires were interviewed at approximately 3, 6, and 13 months after the fire to measure psychological distress. A set of factors was identified that correlated with survivors' ability to recover from the fire event.