Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24355333›Full record

ArticleAmerican journal of epidemiology2014

Invited commentary: is it time to retire the "pack-years" variable? Maybe not!

Duncan C Thomas

Abstract readComment
In one paragraph

Article in American journal of epidemiology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
29citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

29 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Duncan C Thomas

Funding

USC/NORRIS COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER (CORE) SUPPORTP30CA014089 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · PI MYLES G COCKBURN · 1985 to 2026
$181.4M
Translational Research Support CoreP30ES007048 · NIEHS · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · PI ROB S MCCONNELL · 1996 to 2026
$46.4M
Transdisciplinary Studies of Genetic Variation in Colorectal CancerU19CA148107 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · PI GRUBER, STEPHEN B · 2010 to 2014
$11.1M
Methods for Pathway Modeling with Application to FolateR01ES019876 · NIEHS · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · PI THOMAS, DUNCAN C. · 2010 to 2014
$2.9M
NCI NIH HHS P30 CA014089NCI NIH HHS U19 CA148107NIEHS NIH HHS P30 ES007048NIEHS NIH HHS R01 ES019876
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Cumulative exposure--the product of intensity and duration for a constant exposure rate or its integral over time if variable--has been widely used in epidemiologic analyses of extended exposures, for example, the "pack-years" variable for tobacco smoking. Although the effects of intensity and duration are known to differ for exposures like smoking and ionizing radiation and simple cumulative exposure does not explicitly allow for modification by other time-related variables, such as age at exposure or time since exposure, the cumulative exposure variable has the merit of simplicity and has been shown to be one of the best predictors for many exposure-response relationships. This commentary discusses recent refinements of the pack-years variable, as discussed in this issue of the Journal by Vlaanderen et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2014;179(3):290-298), in the broader context of general exposure-time-response relationships.

Indexed as

Smoking CessationHumansLung NeoplasmsSmokingcancercumulative exposureexposure-time-response relationshipsmodels of carcinogenesisradiationsmokingtime-related modifierstobacco

Identifiers

PMID24355333
PMCPMC3895098

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.