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Important issues related to using pooled samples for environmental chemical biomonitoring
Author(s) -
Caudill Samuel P.
Publication year - 2011
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/sim.3885
Subject(s) - pooling , biomonitoring , population , estimation , sample (material) , statistics , variance (accounting) , environmental health , representativeness heuristic , econometrics , medicine , demography , computer science , mathematics , engineering , chemistry , business , environmental chemistry , systems engineering , accounting , chromatography , artificial intelligence , sociology
Pooling samples for analysis was first proposed in the 1940s to reduce analytical measurement costs associated with screening World War II recruits for syphilis. Later, it progressed to more complex screening strategies, to population prevalence estimation for discrete quantities, and to population mean estimation for continuous quantities. Recently, pooled samples have also been used to provide efficient alternatives for gene microarray analyses, epidemiologic studies of biomarkers of exposure, and characterization of populations regarding environmental chemical exposures. In this study, we address estimation and bias issues related to using pooled‐sample variance information from an auxiliary source to augment pooled‐sample variance estimates from the study of interest. The findings are illustrated by using pooled samples from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2001–2002 to assess exposures to perfluorooctanesulfonate and other polyfluoroalkyl compounds in the U.S. population. Published in 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.