[R] Discretize continous variables....

[Frank E Harrell Jr]

Johannes Huesing wrote:
> Frank E Harrell Jr <f.harrell at vanderbilt.edu> [Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 08:03:01PM CEST]:
>> But even then  
>> why condition on incomplete information when complete information is  
>> available?  I.e., why compute Pr(Y=1 | X>x) in place of Pr(Y=1 | X=x)?
> 
> Because regulatory bodies demand it? Being employed in a medical school
> you are certainly aware that regulatory bodies are very much into eliciting
> a "benefit" in terms of "rate of subjects cured" and do not believe in
> a treatment effect expressed as a "mere" shift in the parameter.
> 
> (Not that this notion weren't my pet peeve; but it's there and we have to 
> deal with it.)
> 
> 

Johannes,

It is a mistake to believe that regulatory authorities always require 
this just because they occasionally do.  This is more in the imagination 
of pharmaceutical company medical staff.  And how anyway does this 
relate to predictors in a model?

If statisticians don't stand up to this silliness who is going to?

Frank


-- 
Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chair           School of Medicine
                      Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University