Negative Spillover: A Potential Source of Bias in Pragmatic Clinical Trials

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mann, Sean
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866910751601459200
author Mann, Sean
author_facet Mann, Sean
contents Pragmatic clinical trials evaluate the effectiveness of health interventions in real-world settings. Negative spillover can arise in a pragmatic trial if the study intervention affects how scarce resources are allocated between patients in the intervention and comparison groups. This can harm patients assigned to the control group and lead to overestimation of treatment effect. While this type of negative spillover is often addressed in trials of social welfare and public health interventions, there is little recognition of this source of bias in the medical literature. In this article, I examine what causes negative spillover and how it may have led clinical trial investigators to overestimate the effect of patient navigation, AI-based physiological alarms, and elective induction of labor. I also suggest ways to detect negative spillover and design trials that avoid this potential source of bias.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_10978
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Negative Spillover: A Potential Source of Bias in Pragmatic Clinical Trials
Mann, Sean
Methodology
Quantitative Methods
Pragmatic clinical trials evaluate the effectiveness of health interventions in real-world settings. Negative spillover can arise in a pragmatic trial if the study intervention affects how scarce resources are allocated between patients in the intervention and comparison groups. This can harm patients assigned to the control group and lead to overestimation of treatment effect. While this type of negative spillover is often addressed in trials of social welfare and public health interventions, there is little recognition of this source of bias in the medical literature. In this article, I examine what causes negative spillover and how it may have led clinical trial investigators to overestimate the effect of patient navigation, AI-based physiological alarms, and elective induction of labor. I also suggest ways to detect negative spillover and design trials that avoid this potential source of bias.
title Negative Spillover: A Potential Source of Bias in Pragmatic Clinical Trials
topic Methodology
Quantitative Methods
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.10978