Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
Volume 50, Issue 7 , Pages 809-812, July 1997

Interaction Fallacy

  • Alfredo Morabia

      Affiliations

    • Clinical Epidemiology Division, University Hospital, 1211 Genève 14, Switzerland
    • Corresponding Author InformationDr. Alfredo Morabia, Clinical Epidemiology Division, University Hospital, Rue Micheli-du-Crest 25, 1211 Geneve 14, Switzerland
    • ,
  • Tom Ten Have

      Affiliations

    • Center for Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033 USA
    • ,
  • J.Richard Landis

      Affiliations

    • Center for Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033 USA

Accepted 27 February 1997.

Abstract 

We define interaction fallacy as the situation in which heterogeneity of odds ratios suggests an interaction that does actually not exist among the corresponding risk ratios. We provide a hypothetical example of interaction fallacy between the presence of the germ-line BRCA1 mutation, age at first live birth, and breast cancer risk based on data from the literature. More generally, we present a set of hypothetical conditions under which interaction fallacy may occur.

Keywords:  Interaction, odds ratio, risk ratio, bias

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PII: S0895-4356(97)00053-X

Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
Volume 50, Issue 7 , Pages 809-812, July 1997

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