Re: only significant with interaction

OK - there is no interaction between the interactions and I can do two
stratified ORs for my primary predictor. This leads me to a very big
question on effect modification in general.....

-There seems to be a wide variety of opinion on how to handle it.
Hosmer and Lemeshow seem to suggest looking only at plausible
interactions among main effects that you have left in the model
(either statistically or theoretically). This comes after selection,
scale evaluation and confounding evaluation.

-In Kleinbaum's text, he seems to treat effect modification
differently. He would have you explore it first and then evaluate
confounding on almost entirely subjective criteria.

-I had an epi teacher that was extremely cautious about looking at
effect modification at all.

So...I am left with this study. I am looking at job stress and the
effect on work related pain. Effect modifiers for job strain include
gender and holding an additional job somewhere else. Both are
plausible for a variety of reasons I don't have the room to go into
here. Other predictors to consider are age and hours worked per
week. Neither is a confounder or effect modifier.

I am left submitting to a journal with a largely clinical audience. I
would have two stratified ORs for my predictor (male/female) (2nd job/
no 2nd job). At what point to I have to consider whether it's really
worth it for all of this complexity? What about overfit? I don't
gain much in prediction with the extra terms but the ORs are sharpened
and the effect modification does seem clear.

I know there is no absolute answer. I am just seeking opinions.

Marc

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: only significant with interaction
    ... stratified ORs for my primary predictor. ... question on effect modification in general..... ... interactions among main effects that you have left in the model ... would have two stratified ORs for my predictor (2nd job/ ...
    (sci.stat.math)
  • Re: only significant with interaction
    ... stratified ORs for my primary predictor. ... question on effect modification in general..... ...   Neither is a confounder or effect modifier. ... would have two stratified ORs for my predictor (2nd job/ ...
    (sci.stat.math)