Correlation among multiple complex traits has been believed to have a significant impact on genetic association testing. However, such correlation is difficult to account for in both genetic association studies and statistical methodologies. For complex diseases, especially mental illnesses and behavioral disorders, the traits are often measured on an ordinal scale. Although proportional odds l...

OBJECTIVE We conducted a pilot survey to evaluate breast cancer patients' willingness to participate in a preoperative chemoprevention (ie, window-of-opportunity) study. Design A 27-question written survey was developed and administered to participants. Setting A breast cancer specialty clinic at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. Participants 30 adult patients with newly diagnos...

OBJECTIVES Patient satisfaction has emerged as a prerequisite to improving patients' health behaviors leading to better health care outcomes. This study was to identify predictive determinants for patient satisfaction with pharmacy services using national-level data. METHODS A cross-sectional evaluation was conducted using 2008 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES)...

Background and Purpose—Most large acute stroke trials have been neutral. Functional outcome is usually analyzed using a yes or no answer, eg, death or dependency versus independence. We assessed which statistical approaches are most efficient in analyzing outcomes from stroke trials. Methods—Individual patient data from acute, rehabilitation and stroke unit trials studying the effects of interv...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We evaluated whether basal/acetazolamide stress brain perfusion SPECT performed after revascularization surgery can predict the further clinical outcome of patients with pediatric moyamoya disease. METHODS A total of 77 (31 males, 46 females, age 6.6+/-3.2 years) patients with postoperative pediatric moyamoya disease who underwent basal/acetazolamide stress brain perfus...

In this tutorial, you will learn how to fit structural equation models (SEM) using Stata software. SEMs can be in the sem command for standard linear SEMs, gsem generalized or by drawing their path diagrams SEM Builder. After a brief introduction Stata, demonstrated through confirmatory factor analysis model, mediation group analysis, and growth curve random-slope model logistic ordinal regress...

Background The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two methods of detecting differential item functioning (DIF) in the presence of multilevel data and polytomously scored items. The assessment of DIF with multilevel data (e.g., patients nested within hospitals, hospitals nested within districts) from large-scale assessment programs has received considerable attention but ...

BACKGROUND Most studies regarding the relationship between binge eating disorder (BED) and depression have targeted obese populations. However, nurses, particularly female nurses, are one of the vocations that face these issues due to various reasons including high stress and shift work. This study investigated the prevalence of BED and the correlation between BED and severity of self-reported ...

Objectives To propose a method to study the effect of exposure settings on image quality and to estimate the potential for dose reduction when introducing dose-reducing measures. Methods Using the framework of visual grading regression (VGR), a log(mAs) term is included in the ordinal logistic regression equation, so that the effect of reducing the dose can be quantitatively related to the eff...