Biostatistical Methods WILEY SERIES IN PROBABILITY AND STATISTICS APPLIED PROBABILITY AND STATISTICS SECTION Established by WALTER A. SHEWHART and SAMUEL S. WILKS Editors: Vic Barnett, Noel A. C. Cressie, Nicholas I. Fisher, Iain M. Johnstone, J. B. Kadane, David W. Scott, Bernard W. Silverman, Adrian F. M. Smith, Jozef L. Teugels; Ralph A. Bradley, Emeritus, J. Stuart Hunter, Emeritus, David G. Kendall, Emeritus A complete list of the titles in this series appears at the end of this volume. Biostatistical Methods The Assessment of Relative Risks JOHN M. LACHIN The George Washington University Washington, D.C. A Wiley-Interscience Publication JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. NewYork I Chichester I Weinheim I Brisbane I Singapore I Toronto To my family A NOTE TO THE READER This book has been electronically reproduced fiom digital information stored at John Wiley & Sons, Inc. We are pleased that the use of this new technology will enable us to keep works of enduring scholarly value in print as long as there is a reasonable demand for them. The content of this book is identical to previous printings. This text is printed on acid-free paper. 0 Copyright 0 2000 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4470. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 11 1 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, E-Mail: