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Comparison of different approaches to incidence prediction based on simple interpolation techniques
Author(s) -
Dyba Tadeusz,
Hakulinen Timo
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
statistics in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.996
H-Index - 183
eISSN - 1097-0258
pISSN - 0277-6715
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0258(20000715)19:13<1741::aid-sim496>3.0.co;2-o
Subject(s) - estimator , poisson distribution , statistics , reliability (semiconductor) , interpolation (computer graphics) , computer science , standard error , prediction interval , mathematics , artificial intelligence , motion (physics) , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics
The paper compares three different methods for performing disease incidence prediction based on simple interpolation techniques. The first method assumes that the age‐period specific numbers of observed cases follow a Poisson distribution and the other two methods assume a normal distribution for the incidence rates. The main emphasis of the paper is on assessing the reliability of the three methods. For this purpose, ex post predictions produced by each method are checked for different cancer sites using data from the Cancer Control Region of Turku in Finland. In addition, the behaviour of the estimators of predicted expected values and prediction intervals, crucial for investigation of the reliability of prediction, are assessed using a simulation study. The prediction method making use of the Poisson assumption appeared to be the most reliable of the three approaches. The simulation study found that the estimator of the length of the prediction interval produced by this method has the smallest coverage error and is the most precise. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.