E, V, WModel
k¼p 1 þp 2 þ 1 ¼no. of variables
in model
p 1 ¼no. of potential confounders
p 2 ¼no. of potential interactions
1 ¼exposure variable
V 1 ,...,Vp 1 are potential
confounders
Vs are functions ofCs
e.g.,V 1 ¼C 1 ,V 2 ¼(C 2 )^2 ,V 3 ¼C 1 C 3
W 1 ,...,Wp 2 are potential effect
modifiers
Ws are functions ofCs
e.g.,W 1 ¼C 1 ,W 2 ¼C 1 C 3
The generalE, V, Wmodel containsp 1 plusp 2
plus 1 variables, wherep 1 is the number of
potential confounders in the model,p 2 is the
number of potential interaction terms in the
model, and 1 denotes the exposure variable.
In the CHD study example above, there arep 1
equals to five potential confounders, namely,
the five control variables, and there are p 2
equal to two interaction variables, the first of
which is CATCHL and the second is CAT
HPT. The total number of variables in the
example is, therefore,p 1 plusp 2 plus 1 equals
5 plus 2 plus 1, which equals 8. This corre-
sponds to the model presented earlier, which
contained eight variables.
In addition to the exposure variableE,the gen-
eral model containsp 1 variables denoted asV 1 ,
V 2 throughVp 1. The set ofVs are functions of
theCs that are thought to account for con-
founding in the data. We call the set of these
Vspotential confounders.
For instance, we may haveV 1 equal toC 1 ,V 2
equal to (C 2 )^2 , andV 3 equal toC 1 C 3.
The CHD example above has fiveVs that are
the same as theCs.
Following theVs, we definep 2 variables that
are product terms of the formEtimesW 1 ,E
timesW 2 , and so on up throughEtimesWp 2 ,
whereW 1 ,W 2 , throughWp 2 , denote a set of
functions of the Cs that are potential effect
modifierswithE.
For instance, we may haveW 1 equal toC 1 and
W 2 equal toC 1 timesC 3.
The CHD example above has twoWs, namely,
CHL and HPT, that go into the model as prod-
uct terms of the form CATCHL and CAT
HPT.
CHD EXAMPLE
p 1 ¼5: AGE, CHL, SMK, ECG, HPT
p 2 ¼2: CATCHL, CATHPT
p 1 þp 2 þ 1 ¼ 5 þ 2 þ 1 ¼ 8
CHD EXAMPLE
V 1 ¼AGE,V 2 ¼CHL,V 3 ¼SMK,
V 4 ¼ECG,V 5 ¼HPT
CHD EXAMPLE
W 1 ¼CHL,W 2 ¼HPT
Presentation: IV. TheE,V,WModel 57