Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32617564›Full record

ArticleInternational journal of epidemiology2020

Common misconceptions about validation studies.

Matthew P Fox, Timothy L Lash, Lisa M Bodnar

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in International journal of epidemiology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
35citing papers in PubMed
9.7field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
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

35 citing papers in PubMed, 83 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. The Rogan-Gladen estimator for outcome misclassification.American journal of epidemiology · 2026
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  4. Long-Term Recall Error in Retrospective Family Surveys: Cohabitation Histories in Denmark.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2026
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  8. Modern sources of controls in case-control studies.American journal of epidemiology · 2025
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  15. Article
  16. Assessing Real-World Data From Electronic Health Records for Health Technology Assessment: The SUITABILITY Checklist: A Good Practices Report of an ISPOR Task Force.Value in health : the journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research · 2024
    Article
  17. Validity of self-reported night shift work among women with and without breast cancer.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2024
    Article
  18. Article
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  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Matthew P FoxDepartment of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Timothy L LashDepartment of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Boston, MA, USA.
Lisa M BodnarDepartment of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Boston University · USEmory University · USUniversity of Pittsburgh · US

Funding

Improving Reproducibility by Incorporating UncertaintyR01LM013049 · NLM · EMORY UNIVERSITY · PI LASH, TIMOTHY L. · 2019 to 2022
$1.1M
NLM NIH HHS R01 LM013049
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Information bias is common in epidemiology and can substantially diminish the validity of study results. Validation studies, in which an investigator compares the accuracy of a measure with a gold standard measure, are an important way to understand and mitigate this bias. More attention is being paid to the importance of validation studies in recent years, yet they remain rare in epidemiologic research and, in our experience, they remain poorly understood. Many epidemiologists have not had any experience with validations studies, either in the classroom or in their work. We present an example of misclassification of a dichotomous exposure to elucidate some important misunderstandings about how to conduct validation studies to generate valid information. We demonstrate that careful attention to the design of validation studies is central to determining how the bias parameters (e.g. sensitivity and specificity or positive and negative predictive values) can be used in quantitative bias analyses to appropriately correct for misclassification. Whether sampling is done based on the true gold standard measure, the misclassified measure or at random will determine which parameters are valid and the precision of those estimates. Whether or not the validation is done stratified by other key variables (e.g. by the exposure) will also determine the validity of those estimates. We also present sample questions that can be used to teach these concepts. Increasing the presence of validation studies in the classroom could have a positive impact on their use and improve the validity of estimates of effect in epidemiologic research.

Indexed as

Epidemiologic StudiesBiasHumansPredictive Value of TestsSensitivity and SpecificityInformation biasmisclassificationsensitivityspecificityvalidation studies

Identifiers

PMID32617564
PMCPMC7750925
OpenAlexW3038536745

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.