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A test for differential ascertainment in case‐control studies with application to child maltreatment
Author(s) -
Sordello Matteo,
Small Dylan S.
Publication year - 2020
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.8551
Subject(s) - differential (mechanical device) , test (biology) , odds , differential diagnosis , statistics , odds ratio , medicine , logistic regression , mathematics , pathology , aerospace engineering , paleontology , engineering , biology
We propose a method to test for the presence of differential ascertainment in case‐control studies, when data are collected by multiple sources. We show that, when differential ascertainment is present, the use of only the observed cases leads to severe bias in the computation of the odds ratio. We can alleviate the effect of such bias using the estimates that our method of testing for differential ascertainment naturally provides. We apply it to a dataset obtained from the National Violent Death Reporting System, with the goal of checking for the presence of differential ascertainment by race in the count of deaths caused by child maltreatment.