A Measurement Model of Disease Severity in Absence of a Gold Standard

P. Martus

doi:10.1055/s-0038-1634164

Methods of Information in Medicine, Table of Contents

Methods Inf Med 2001; 40(03): 265-271
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634164

Original Article

Schattauer GmbH

A Measurement Model of Disease Severity in Absence of a Gold Standard

Authors

P. Martus

¹Institute of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology Free University Berlin Germany

Abstract

Abstract:

In the absence of a gold standard, we propose the use of confirmatory factor analysis for the quantification of agreement between diagnostic measurements and the true disease severity. The essential assumption is conditional independence of diagnostic measurements adjusted for the severity of the disease. However, depending on the number of measurements available, the method works even if some of them are conditionally dependent. We illustrate the method using an example related to glaucoma eye disease.

Keywords:

Diagnosis - Agreement - Factor Analysis - Latent Variables - Glaucoma

Full Text

References

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