A Modified Poisson Regression Approach to Prospective Studies with Binary Data

TLDR

Relative risk is usually the parameter of interest in epidemiologic and medical studies. The study proposes a modified Poisson regression approach with robust error variance to estimate relative risk directly. The method uses Poisson regression with robust error variance, justified by a simple 2‑by‑2 table and illustrated with two data sets. Simulation results show the approach is very reliable even with total sample sizes as small as 100.

Abstract

Relative risk is usually the parameter of interest in epidemiologic and medical studies. In this paper, the author proposes a modified Poisson regression approach (i.e., Poisson regression with a robust error variance) to estimate this effect measure directly. A simple 2-by-2 table is used to justify the validity of this approach. Results from a limited simulation study indicate that this approach is very reliable even with total sample sizes as small as 100. The method is illustrated with two data sets.