Flexible sensitivity analysis for causal inference in observational studies subject to unmeasured confounding

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Lu, Sizhu, Ding, Peng
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Lu, Sizhu
Ding, Peng
author_facet Lu, Sizhu
Ding, Peng
contents Causal inference with observational studies often suffers from unmeasured confounding, yielding biased estimators based on the unconfoundedness assumption. Sensitivity analysis assesses how the causal conclusions change with respect to different degrees of unmeasured confounding. Most existing sensitivity analysis methods work well for specific types of statistical estimation or testing strategies. We propose a flexible sensitivity analysis framework that can deal with commonly used inverse probability weighting, outcome regression, and doubly robust estimators simultaneously. It is based on the well-known parametrization of the selection bias as comparisons of the observed and counterfactual outcomes conditional on observed covariates. It is attractive for practical use because it only requires simple modifications of the standard estimators. Moreover, it naturally extends to many other causal inference settings, including the causal risk ratio or odds ratio, the average causal effect on the treated units, and studies with survival outcomes. We also develop an R package saci to implement our sensitivity analysis estimators.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2305_17643
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Flexible sensitivity analysis for causal inference in observational studies subject to unmeasured confounding
Lu, Sizhu
Ding, Peng
Methodology
Causal inference with observational studies often suffers from unmeasured confounding, yielding biased estimators based on the unconfoundedness assumption. Sensitivity analysis assesses how the causal conclusions change with respect to different degrees of unmeasured confounding. Most existing sensitivity analysis methods work well for specific types of statistical estimation or testing strategies. We propose a flexible sensitivity analysis framework that can deal with commonly used inverse probability weighting, outcome regression, and doubly robust estimators simultaneously. It is based on the well-known parametrization of the selection bias as comparisons of the observed and counterfactual outcomes conditional on observed covariates. It is attractive for practical use because it only requires simple modifications of the standard estimators. Moreover, it naturally extends to many other causal inference settings, including the causal risk ratio or odds ratio, the average causal effect on the treated units, and studies with survival outcomes. We also develop an R package saci to implement our sensitivity analysis estimators.
title Flexible sensitivity analysis for causal inference in observational studies subject to unmeasured confounding
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.17643