Rev Epidemiol Sante
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Rev Epidemiol Sante · Oct 2002
[The contribution of multilevel models in contextual analysis in the field of social epidemiology: a review of literature].
Using contextual factors beyond individual factors, contextual analysis allows a more accurate identification of at-risk populations, which could be useful when planning health programs. Multilevel models, widely used in British and North-American social epidemiology research but less frequently in France, are particularly suitable to analyse contextual data, because they take into account their hierarchical structure. This paper addresses methodological issues in the utilization of multilevel models, and reports some results which illustrate their potentials compared to those of more conventional statistical methods. ⋯ Multilevel models can also help examine whether the between-group variations affect all the members of the groups, or only specific sub-groups. Finally, they can estimate how much of this complex between-group variability is explained by the contextual factors included in the model. The overall conclusion is that multilevel statistical methods should be used in social epidemiology studies dealing with individual and contextual data, to produce results that are both richer and more consistent.