Department of Biostatistics Seminar/Workshop Series

A method for systematic community selection in evaluating breast cancer interventions: The use of prior information on mortality data

Vincent K. Agboto, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Meharry Medical College

Wednesday, February 27, 2013, 1:30-2:30pm, MRBIII Room 1220

Community based participatory research often relies on convenience selection based on co-location with an academic center. It has been known for more than 50 years that even a single, biological, public health intervention may produce significantly different outcomes in communities with virtually identical socio-demographic features. It is therefore puzzling that systematic accounting for context-level interactions in the design of randomized trials of community or organizational-level interventions is almost unknown. Since such interactions may promote unintended disparities when public health interventions are successful, there is an urgent need for better methods to address community effect modification and avoid bias. In this article, we propose a new method of community selection in mammogram intervention using prior information about breast cancer mortality data.