Assuntos
Células Dendríticas , Eritema Multiforme , Subunidade alfa de Receptor de Interleucina-3 , Transdução de Sinais , Receptor 7 Toll-Like , Receptor Toll-Like 9 , Humanos , Eritema Multiforme/patologia , Subunidade alfa de Receptor de Interleucina-3/metabolismo , Células Dendríticas/metabolismo , Receptor 7 Toll-Like/metabolismo , Receptor Toll-Like 9/metabolismo , Recidiva , Feminino , Masculino , Adulto , Pessoa de Meia-IdadeRESUMO
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 variance estimates. A practical demonstration is presented with data from a cross-sectional study carried out on a sample of 611 women, to test the hypothesis that the lack of housework sharing is associated with high scores of psychological symptoms as measured by a validated questionnaire. RESULTS: Crude and adjusted prevalence ratio estimated by logistic regression were similar to those estimated by tabular analysis. Also, ranges of the confidence intervals of the prevalence ratio according to the Delta Method were nearly equal to those obtained by the Mantel-Haenszel approach. CONCLUSIONS: The results give support to the use of the Delta Method for the estimation of confidence intervals for ratios of proportions. The method should be seen as an alternative for situations in which the need to control a large number of potential confounders limits the use of stratified analysis.
Assuntos
Intervalos de Confiança , Modelos Logísticos , Estudos Transversais , Feminino , Humanos , Prevalência , RiscoRESUMO
Haloperidol, the most studied antipsychotic drug, is the only one about which reliable statements on the relationship between blood levels and clinical outcome can be made. A systematic overview was undertaken to determine whether there was an optimum blood concentration range for clinical efficacy. Eighteen published studies which provided individual patient data in tables or graphs were reviewed. Clinical benefits tended to decline when the haloperidol blood concentration was increased above 26 ng/ml. Our data support the existence of a therapeutic window between 4 and 26 ng/ml for haloperidol in the treatment of schizophrenic, schizoaffective and schizophreniform disorders.