An illustration of and programs estimating attributable fractions in large scale surveys considering multiple risk factors

Table 3 Attributable fractions (AFs) of risk factors for the outcome cardiovascular disease among 2,217 subjects of the NHANES dataset 2005–2006 aged 40 years and older.

Risk factor	Levin	Adj OR Levin^a	Bruzzi	Sequential AF^b	Sequential AF^c	Average AF	Average AF (not considering hypertension)
Age of 60 years and older	65.2	58.8	59.3	54.0	13.3	30.9	37.4
Male	33.6	22.8	24.1	10.5	6.6	9.8	10.2
Hypertension	50.9	33.6	36.2	11.9	15.3	15.7	-
High total cholesterol	33.8	23.0	24.4	5.5	12.7	10.0	12.5
HDL cholesterol < 45 mg/dl	21.8	17.3	17.7	3.2	10.6	7.1	8.0
Smoking	34.1	26.3	27.1	3.9	20.8	11.4	12.0
Diabetes	20.4	12.2	13.9	1.3	11.0	5.4	6.5
Sum	259.8	194.0	91.6^d	90.3	90.3	90.3	86.6

^aadjusted for all risk factors displayed in the table
^bnota bene: These estimates are dependent on the order of the risk factors, in this case the order in which the variables are reported in the table.
^cnota bene: These estimates are dependent on the order of the risk factors, in this case the opposite order in which the variables are reported in the table.
^dBruzzi's method allows calculating a summary AF that is not the sum of all individual AF.

ISSN: 1471-2288