Consequences of exposure measurement error for confounder identification in environmental epidemiology

Abstract
Non‐differential measurement error in the exposure variable is known to attenuate the dose–response relationship. The amount of attenuation introduced in a given situation is not only a function of the precision of the exposure measurement but also depends on the conditional variance of the true exposure given the other independent variables. In addition, confounder effects may also be affected by the exposure measurement error. These difficulties in statistical model development are illustrated by examples from a epidemiological study performed in the Faroe Islands to investigate the adverse health effects of prenatal mercury exposure. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Funding Information
  • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (ES06112, ES09797)
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (9W-0262-NAEX)
  • Danish Medical Research Council (22-00-0540)
  • Danish Health Insurance Foundation (2000B084)
  • European Commission