Data of a case-control study of esophageal cancer were used as an example of the use of multivariate analysis with stratification and logistic regression. Eighty-five cases and 292 controls were classified according to sex, age and smoking and drinking habits. The point estimates of the odds ratios were similar, and the techniques were considered complementary.

OBJECTIVE: To present an application of logistic regression modelling to estimate ratios of proportions, such as prevalence ratio or relative risk, and the Delta Method to estimate confidence intervals. METHOD: The Delta Method was used because it is appropriate for the estimation of variance of non-linear functions of random variables. The method is based on Taylor’s series expansion and provides a good approximation of variance estimates. A computer program, utilizing the matrix module of SAS, was developed to compute the […]