Finding Factors Influencing Risk: Comparing Variable Selection Methods Applied to Logistic Regression Models of Cases and Controls

摘要

When modeling the risk of a disease, the very act of selecting the factors to include can heavily impact the results. This study compares the performance of several variable selection techniques applied to logistic regression. We performed realistic simulation studies to compare five methods of variable selection: (1) a confidence interval approach for significant coefficients (CI), (2) backward selection, (3) forward selection, (4) stepwise selection, and (5) Bayesian stochastic search variable selection (SSVS) using both informed and uniformed priors. We defined our simulated diseases mimicking odds ratios for cancer risk found in the literature for environmental factors, such as smoking; dietary risk factors, such as fiber; genetic risk factors such as XPD; and interactions. We modeled the distribution of our covariates, including correlation, after the reported empirical distributions of these risk factors. We also used a null data set to calibrate the priors of the Bayesian method and evaluate its sensitivity. Of the standard methods (95% CI, backward, forward and stepwise selection) the CI approach resulted in the highest average percent of correct associations and lowest average percent of incorrect associations. SSVS with an informed prior had higher average percent of correct associations and lower average percent of incorrect associations than did the CI approach. This study shows that Bayesian methods offer a way to use prior information to both increase power and decrease false-positive results when selecting factors to model complex disease risk.