You Can Do Research with Longitudinal Data: Measuring Breast Cancer Stage with Medicare Claim Data Using Latent Growth Curve Modeling

Introduction

On January 1, 2002, approximately 2,278,269 women alive had a history of breast cancer in the United States.  Moreover, based on rates from 2000 through 2002, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime.1

Ironically, these very fac....