Table 3 Probabilistic sensitivity analyses correcting for differential non-reporting of cases with NMSC with sensitivity and specificity drawn from trapezoidal and uniform distributions

From: Use of oral glucocorticoids and risk of skin cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a population-based case–control study

Analysis

Basal cell carcinoma a

Squamous cell carcinoma

 

IRR 2.5 percentile

IRR median estimate

IRR 97.5 percentile

IRR 2.5 percentile

IRR median estimate

IRR 97.5 percentile

Conventional analysis

1.07

1.15

1.25

0.94

1.15

1.40

Differential sensitivity analysis–systematic error

1.17

1.45

1.92

1.15

1.47

2.00

Differential sensitivity analysis–systematic and random error

1.14

1.45

1.94

1.06

1.48

2.16

  1. BCC=basal cell carcinoma; IRR=incidence rate ratios; NMSC=non-melanoma skin cancer.
  2. Sensitivity among cases using glucocorticoids: Trapezodial distribution (minimum=0.55, mode 1=0.6, mode 2=0.9, maximum=0.95). Sensitivity among cases not using glucocorticoids: Uniform distribution (minimum=0.8, maximum=1.0). Specificity among non-cases: Uniform distribution (minimum=0.95, maximum=1.0).
  3. The sensitivity analysis should be cautiously interpreted for risk of BCC among oral glucocorticoid users, because the SAS-macro did not converge after approximately 25 000 iterations. Therefore, the macro was reran and stopped after 5000 iterations.
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