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Survival Versus Years Of Healthy Life; Which Is More Powerful As A Study Outcome?, Paula Diehr Jun 1999

Survival Versus Years Of Healthy Life; Which Is More Powerful As A Study Outcome?, Paula Diehr

Paula Diehr

Studies of interventions that are intended to improve patients' health are often evaluated with survival as the primary outcome, even when a measure adjusted for quality of survival, such as years of healthy life (YHL), would seem more appropriate. The purpose of this article is to determine whether studies based on survival are more or less powerful than studies based on YHL in clinical trials where either measure might be appropriate. We used data from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) to estimate the sample size that would be needed in studies of 156 different health conditions, for the two outcome …


Methods For Analyzing Health Care Utilization And Costs, Paula Diehr Jan 1999

Methods For Analyzing Health Care Utilization And Costs, Paula Diehr

Paula Diehr

Important questions about health care are often addressed by studying health care utilization. Utilization data have several characteristics that make them a challenge to analyze. In this paper we discuss sources of information, the statistical properties of utilization data, common analytic methods including the two-part model, and some newly available statistical methods including the generalized linear model. We also address issues of study design and new methods for dealing with censored data. Examples are presented.