INVITED COMMENTARY: Invited Commentary: On Population Subgroups, Mathematics, and Interventions

摘要

New sex-specific equations, each with race/ethnic-specific intercept, for predicted lung function illustrate a meth-nodological point, that complex differences between groups may not imply interactions with other predictors, such asnage and height. The new equations find that race/ethnic identity does not interact with either age or height in thenprediction equations, although there are race/ethnic-specific offsets. Further study is warranted of the effect ofnpossible small race/ethnic interactions on disease classification. Additional study of repeated measures of lungnfunction is warranted, given that the new equations were developed in cross-sectional designs. Predicting lungnfunction is more than a methodological exercise. Predicted values are important in disease diagnosis and mon-nitoring. It is suggested that measurement and tracking of lung function throughout young adulthood could be usednto provide an early warning of potential long-term lung function losses to encourage improvement of risky behaviorsnincluding smoking and failure to maintain normal body weight in the general population.