Tutorial in biostatistics: Analyzing associations between total plasma homocysteine and B vitamins using optimal categorization and segmented regression.
Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10021, USA. heb2013@med.cornell.edu
Data analysts consider standard regression models (e.g., generalized linear model) or nonparametric smoothing techniques (e.g., loess or splines) when examining the association between two variables. Before this step, a quantile-based summarization is typically used for exploring the exposure-response relationship. Unfortunately, these exploratory approaches may not be optimal or efficient for guiding the formal analysis in many biological and nutritional data settings. We suggest a recently developed method for selection of cutpoints as a tool of data summary and segmented regression as a modeling approach in the analysis of plasma total homocysteine and related vitamins. These methods are often complementary in discovering the underlying complex pattern of association.