Abstract
In the context of accountability analysis, recently reported findings that changes in life expectancy were associated with changes in fine particulate matter air pollution, even controlling for changes in socioeconomic status, demographics, and smoking are useful and relevant. This and other air pollution accountability analyses, however, by necessity rely heavily on environmental observational epidemiology. Potential concerns pertaining to the use of environmental observational studies include mining of observational data sets by indiscriminant multiple testing, overinterpreting stratified or subgroup analysis, statistical model manipulation, and inadequate control of potential confounders. The validity of environmental observational epidemiology should be judged based on the specific merits of the individual studies. The analysis of the air pollution and life expectancy analysis are used as an example of an attempt to use appropriate statistical methods to glean useful information from real-world observational data.
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Pope, C.A., Ezzati, M. & Dockery, D.W. Validity of observational studies in accountability analyses: the case of air pollution and life expectancy. Air Qual Atmos Health 5, 231–235 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-010-0130-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-010-0130-3