What are the different types of error?
Types of error
* Random error due to chance
- Related to Precision
* Systematic error (NOT due to chance)
- Related to Accuracy and Bias
Define accuracy
Define bias
systematic = bias
Define selection bias
Selection bias
* Related with procedures used to select units for a study
* Study group differs from the source population
Information bias (AKA ________ bias)
- Related with information that is recorded for a study
- Error in the way something is ________, in particular the _______, _______, or other variables of ________ (e.g. disease status - calling an animal diseased when they are not disease = misclassification –> wreck havoc).
Information bias (AKA Misclassification bias)
- Related with information that is recorded for a study
- Error in the way something is measured, in particular the exposures, outcomes, or other variables of interest (e.g. disease status - calling an animal diseased when they are not disease = misclassification –> wreck havoc).
Define confounding bias
Muddles your true effect
Sampling is where what type of bias can occur?
Selection bias
As you record disease, exposure, or information on study group, this is where what type of bias comes in?
Information buas
Even if subjects are correclty classified, other facotds wil distort the effect of an exposure. This would be ?
Risk factors
What are the consequences of bias?
Surveillance bias
* _____/______-clinical disease is more likely to be detected in animals under frequent medical surveillance and/or enrolled in surveillance programs
Surveillance bias
* mild/sub-clinical disease is more likely to be detected in animals under frequent medical surveillance and/or enrolled in surveillance programs
if you are monitoring a group of animals through a surveillance program, then you are more likely to find mild disease v/c you are actually looking vs. looking at population as a whole.
Case control studies coming from referral hospitals. Is this a good source for our controls (hospital). Want controls to represent population, so if only choosing from hospital is that introducing a bias.
Non-response bias
* Non-response or _______ to participate in a study
* When we are losing >___-___% of the responses, this is what we worry about
Non-response bias
* Non-response or refusal to participate in a study
* When we are losing >20-30% of the responses, this is what we worry about
Missing data bias
* >__-___% (like non-response bias)
Loss to follow-up and Follow-up bias
* Similar to _____-________ bias, but occurs in the ________-___ period of longitudinal studies
Loss to follow-up and Follow-up bias
* Similar to non-response bias, but occurs in the follow-up period of longitudinal studies
if animal dies or is no longer apart of study.
you are losing information each time and is there a selection process going on that we are unaware of
Selective entry or survival bias
* Traits are _______ selected when choosing a group of subject
* e.g. ‘Healthy worker’ effect in occupational-heath studies
* Treatments that prolong _______ will increase prevalence of disease
Selective entry or survival bias
* Traits are naturally selected when choosing a group of subject
* e.g. ‘Healthy worker’ effect in occupational-heath studies
* Treatments that prolong lifespan will increase prevalence of disease
How do you reduce selection bias?
Reducing selection bias
* Observational studies – consider ‘forces’ at play with selecting individuals; how are you selecting in this study design?
1. Case-control
* Use ______ cases (new case that will be apart of case definition), and get controls from ______ source population as the cases. (do not want controls to misrepresent where your cases came from)
2. Cohort
* B/c following animals through time, want to keep those animals in the study. Persistent _________-___ (equal E+|E-) with creative strategies for maintaining ____ participation.
Reducing selection bias
* Observational studies – consider ‘forces’ at play with selecting individuals; how are you selecting in this study design?
1. Case-control
* Use incident cases (new case that will be apart of case definition), and get controls from same source population as the cases. (do not want controls to misrepresent where your cases came from)
2. Cohort
* B/c following animals through time, want to keep those animals in the study. Persistent follow-up (equal E+|E-) with creative strategies for maintaining full participation.
Recall bias
* Problem when interviewing owners; How well do they recall info? Cases are better at recalling (remembering) past exposure compared with non-cases.
Interview bias
* Interviewers are privy to the hypothesis under investigation. The way question is asked and answered may be different if they know what the study is about. Kind of inevitable unless you can blind your interviewer.
Pre-verification bias
* Subjects may have _______ motives for overestimating exposure (e.g. ________)
Pre-verification bias
* Subjects may have ulterior motives for overestimating exposure (e.g. compensation)
Obsequiousness bias (‘______ _____’ effect)
* AKA ‘_______ __________ bias’
* Refers to animal ________
* Subjects systematically alter responses towards ________ desirable answers
* Hans was trained horse who could perform arithmetic tasks
* He was getting non-verbal clues from his trainer to determine when to stop stomping his hoof in response to a question
Obsequiousness bias (‘Clever Hans’ effect)
* AKA ‘Social desirability bias’
* Refers to animal welfare
* Subjects systematically alter responses towards perceived desirable answers
* Hans was trained horse who could perform arithmetic tasks
* He was getting non-verbal clues from his trainer to determine when to stop stomping his
hoof in response to a question
Consequences of information bias (misclassification)
1. Non-differential
* Systematic errors in one group (e.g. E) are _________ of the other group (e.g. D)
* So in a Case-control study, you would have Equal amounts of systematic error in ____, regardless of the __ status.
* In a cohort study, the bias in your _____ is regardless of ____ status. Equal amounts of systematic error in ___, regardless of the ___ status.
* Non-differential misclassification = error is always going towards the _____
2. Differential
* Systematic error occurs to a greater extent in one group than the other (If the bias in one is dependent on another, you call it a differential).
* Unequal amount of systematic error in __, depending on the __ status
* Unequal amount of systematic error in D, depending on the __ status
* Differential misclassification = err in any direction (can see either towards or away from NULL; making it very difficult to figure out information bias)
* Unless you have an idea of how much error is present and where…
Consequences of information bias (misclassification)
1. Non-differential
* Systematic errors in one group (e.g. E) are independent of the other group (e.g. D)
* So in a Case-control study, you would have Equal amounts of systematic error in E, regardless of the D status.
* In a cohort study, the bias in your disease is regardless of exposure status. Equal amounts of systematic error in D, regardless of the E status.
* Non-differential misclassification = error is always going towards the NULL
2. Differential
* Systematic error occurs to a greater extent in one group than the other (If the bias in one is dependent on another, you call it a differential).
* Unequal amount of systematic error in E, depending on the D status
* Unequal amount of systematic error in D, depending on the E status
* Differential misclassification = err in any direction (can see either towards or away from NULL; making it very difficult to figure out information bias)
* Unless you have an idea of how much error is present and where…
You can misclassify the exposure and the disease. We are worried about the consequences of this mixing up is, whether it is away or towards the null.