Document Detail


Problems of ascertainment of congenital anomalies.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  6741424     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Problems of ascertainment bedevil the investigation of the etiology of congenital anomalies in singletons and in multiple births by epidemiological methods. It is shown that the definition of the population of affected births is ambiguous and that the problem of tracing etiology is complicated by the systematic way in which anomalies may be missed at birth. The available methods of dealing with problems of ascertainment are reviewed. Methods of adjusting for possible bias of ascertainment of affected births, by fitting statistical models to data from several sources, have been employed in some previous studies. In these methods, it is assumed that there are no errors of diagnosis or of recording. However, it is shown that there may be discrepancies in recorded diagnoses between sources, rendering this assumption untenable. In these methods, it is also assumed that the model which is the best fit to the data on the ascertained cases in also the best model for the cases which were not ascertained. This assumption is tested indirectly in a retrospective analysis of data from Aberdeen and Belfast collected concurrently through routine recording systems. It is demonstrated that there was a social process in ascertainment which renders the methods of adjusting for bias of ascertainment at best very complicated and at worst inapplicable.
Authors:
J Little; R A Carr-Hill
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae     Volume:  33     ISSN:  0001-5660     ISO Abbreviation:  Acta Genet Med Gemellol (Roma)     Publication Date:  1984  
Date Detail:
Created Date:  1984-08-17     Completed Date:  1984-08-17     Revised Date:  2007-11-15    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  0370314     Medline TA:  Acta Genet Med Gemellol (Roma)     Country:  ITALY    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  97-105     Citation Subset:  IM    
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Congenital Abnormalities / epidemiology,  etiology*,  genetics
Data Collection / standards
Diseases in Twins*
Epidemiologic Methods
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Ireland
Mass Screening
Population
Prejudice
Scotland

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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