Citation

Young RA. Epidemiology 2012; 23(1): 116-118.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI 48201, USA. ryoun@med.wayne.edu

Comment In:

Epidemiology. 2012;23(5):773-4; author reply 774-5

Erratum On

Epidemiology 2012;23(2):358.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/EDE.0b013e31823b5efc

PMID

22082996

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Recent epidemiologic studies have estimated little or no increased risk of automotive crashes related to cell phone conversations by the driver, whereas earlier case-crossover studies estimated the relative risk as close to 4. Did earlier studies introduce a positive bias in relative risk estimates by overestimating driving exposure in control windows? METHODS: Driving exposures in a "control" window and a corresponding "case" window on the subsequent day were tabulated across 100 days for 439 GPS-instrumented vehicles in the Puget Sound area during 2005-2006. RESULTS: For control windows containing at least some driving, driving exposure was about one-fourth that of case windows. Adjusting for this imbalance reduces relative risk estimates in the earlier case-crossover studies from 4 to 1. CONCLUSION: Earlier case-crossover studies likely overestimated the relative risk for cell phone conversations while driving by implicitly assuming that driving during a control window was full-time when it may have been only part-time.

Erratum:

On page 118, left column, line 8, the sentence should say “with >0% consistency,” not “with 70% consistency.” (Epidemiology. 23(2):358, March 2012.)

See also comments and rebuttals:
Mittleman MA, Maclure M, Mostofsky E. Epidemiology. 2012 Jul;23(4):647-8; author reply 649-50. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e3182583cdf.

Walsh MC, Trentham-Dietz A, Newcomb PA, Gangnon R, Palta M. Epidemiology. 2012 Sep;23(5):772-3. Using propensity scores to reduce case-control selection bias.

Young RA. Epidemiology. 2013 May;24(3):469. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e31828abbea. Cell phone use and crash risk.

Kidd DG, McCartt AT. Epidemiology. 2013 May;24(3):468-9. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e31828c4663. Cell phone use and crash risk.

McEvoy SP, Stevenson MR, Woodward M. Epidemiology. 2012 Jul;23(4):648; author reply 649-50. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e3182594053. Cell phone use and crash risk.

Kidd DG, McCartt AT. Epidemiology. 2012 Sep;23(5):773-4;author reply 774-5. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e318262247e. More on cell phone use and crash risk.

Language: en