Measurement Error: Impact on Nutrition Research and Adjustment for its Effects

This primer is intended for those who wish to know more about the statistical issues underlying measurement error, its impact on research results, and statistical methods of adjusting for its unwanted effects, especially as applied to nutrition research. The material is arranged in three sections. The first section provides information about measurement error occurring in the context of general epidemiologic studies. The second section focuses on measurement error in nutrition studies. The third section focuses on the use of software that can be downloaded from this website to analyze data that are subject to measurement error, especially nutrition data. A list of references is provided for further reading.

Section 1. Measurement Error in Epidemiology

  • Basic concepts of measurement error
  • Basic concepts of usual exposure
  • Impact of measurement error on research studies
  • Methods of adjustment to reduce bias in estimates

Section 2. Measurement Error in Nutritional Epidemiology

  • Errors in dietary assessment
  • NCI models for short-term reference instruments
  • Impact of dietary measurement error on nutrition studies
  • NCI method of adjusting estimates for dietary measurement error

Section 3. Software for Measurement Error in Nutrition Research

  • NCI software for different applications
  • Potential misuses of NCI software
  • Other measurement error software

References