A Bayesian functional approach to test models of life course epidemiology over continuous time
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Life course epidemiology examines associations between repeated measures of risk and health outcomes across different phases of life. Empirical research, however, is often based on discrete-time models that assume that sporadic measurement occasions fully capture underlying long-term continuous processes of risk. METHODS: We propose (i) the functional relevant life course model (fRLM), which treats repeated, discrete measures of risk as unobserved continuous processes, and (ii) a testing procedure to assign probabilities that the data correspond to conceptual models of life course epidemiology (critical period, sensitive period and accumulation models). The performance of the fRLM is evaluated with simulations, and the approach is illustrated with empirical applications relating body mass index (BMI) to mRNA-seq signatures of chronic kidney disease, inflammation and breast cancer. RESULTS: Simulations reveal that fRLM identifies the correct life course model with three to five repeated assessments of risk and 400 subjects. The empirical examples reveal that chronic kidney disease reflects a critical period process and inflammation and breast cancer likely reflect sensitive period mechanisms. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed fRLM treats repeated measures of risk as continuous processes and, under realistic data scenarios, the method provides accurate probabilities that the data correspond to commonly studied models of life course epidemiology. fRLM is implemented with publicly-available software.
DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyad190
Authors: Julien Bodelet, Cecilia Potente, Guillaume Blanc, Justin Chumbley, Hira Imeri, Scott Hofer, Kathleen Mullan Harris, Graciela Muniz-Terrera, Michael Shanahan
Language: English
Subfield: Statistics and Probability
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,594
Funders: National Science Foundation, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Jacobs Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Awards: G1425959741, Evaluation of Multivariate Causal Factors Linking the Flynn Effect to Declining Dementia Trends and Cognitive Aging, Social Context, the Life Course, and Genetic Transcription in Add Health, The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, G5173858953, G597551293, Social regulation of pro-inflammatory monocytes, Social Regulation of Gene Expression, Social status and the regulation of the genome: longitudinal and cross-species studies, G9000354797, USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health
OpenAlex ID: W4390741269