Published In

Open Access Medical Statistics

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-1-2012

Subjects

Body mass index, Prostate -- Cancer -- Prognosis

Abstract

Background: This article presents cohort studies that use data from the National Health Information Survey from 1986 to 1994 and compares the effectiveness of Cox proportional hazards models that assume a linear relationship between body mass index (BMI) and the risk of prostate cancer with models that assume a J-shaped relationship. Methods and results: Our study found that for black males over 40 years of age, neither a linear nor a J-shaped relationship yielded a statistically significant model. With white males over 40 years, assuming a linear relationship did not yield a statistically significant model (P = 0.582). When we assume a J-shaped relationship, the optimal change point where the risk of prostate cancer death is minimized occurs when the BMI is 25.5. Among white males over 40 years with BMI < 25.5, an inverse relationship was found (P = 0.009). Among white males over 40 years with BMI > 25.5, a direct relationship was found (P = 0.017). Conclusion: With this data set, we found that for white males over 40 years, Cox proportional hazards models that assume a J-shaped relationship between BMI and prostate cancer death provide a much better fit than models assuming a linear relationship.

Description

Copyright 2012 McGee and Crespo, publisher and licensee Dove Medical Press Ltd. This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.

DOI

10.2147/OAMS.S34645

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/9527

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