A Transfer Learning Causal Approach to Evaluate Racial/Ethnic and Geographic Variation in Outcomes Following Congenital Heart Surgery

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Han, Larry, Zhang, Yi, Nathan, Meena, Mayer, Jr., John E., Pasquali, Sara K., Zelevinsky, Katya, Duan, Rui, Normand, Sharon-Lise T.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Han, Larry
Zhang, Yi
Nathan, Meena
Mayer, Jr., John E.
Pasquali, Sara K.
Zelevinsky, Katya
Duan, Rui
Normand, Sharon-Lise T.
author_facet Han, Larry
Zhang, Yi
Nathan, Meena
Mayer, Jr., John E.
Pasquali, Sara K.
Zelevinsky, Katya
Duan, Rui
Normand, Sharon-Lise T.
contents Congenital heart defects (CHD) are the most prevalent birth defects in the United States and surgical outcomes vary considerably across the country. The outcomes of treatment for CHD differ for specific patient subgroups, with non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic populations experiencing higher rates of mortality and morbidity. A valid comparison of outcomes within racial/ethnic subgroups is difficult given large differences in case-mix and small subgroup sizes. We propose a causal inference framework for outcome assessment and leverage advances in transfer learning to incorporate data from both target and source populations to help estimate causal effects while accounting for different sources of risk factor and outcome differences across populations. Using the Society of Thoracic Surgeons' Congenital Heart Surgery Database (STS-CHSD), we focus on a national cohort of patients undergoing the Norwood operation from 2016-2022 to assess operative mortality and morbidity outcomes across U.S. geographic regions by race/ethnicity. We find racial and ethnic outcome differences after controlling for potential confounding factors. While geography does not have a causal effect on outcomes for non-Hispanic Caucasian patients, non-Hispanic Black patients experience wide variability in outcomes with estimated 30-day mortality ranging from 5.9% (standard error 2.2%) to 21.6% (4.4%) across U.S. regions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_14573
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Transfer Learning Causal Approach to Evaluate Racial/Ethnic and Geographic Variation in Outcomes Following Congenital Heart Surgery
Han, Larry
Zhang, Yi
Nathan, Meena
Mayer, Jr., John E.
Pasquali, Sara K.
Zelevinsky, Katya
Duan, Rui
Normand, Sharon-Lise T.
Methodology
Applications
Machine Learning
Congenital heart defects (CHD) are the most prevalent birth defects in the United States and surgical outcomes vary considerably across the country. The outcomes of treatment for CHD differ for specific patient subgroups, with non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic populations experiencing higher rates of mortality and morbidity. A valid comparison of outcomes within racial/ethnic subgroups is difficult given large differences in case-mix and small subgroup sizes. We propose a causal inference framework for outcome assessment and leverage advances in transfer learning to incorporate data from both target and source populations to help estimate causal effects while accounting for different sources of risk factor and outcome differences across populations. Using the Society of Thoracic Surgeons' Congenital Heart Surgery Database (STS-CHSD), we focus on a national cohort of patients undergoing the Norwood operation from 2016-2022 to assess operative mortality and morbidity outcomes across U.S. geographic regions by race/ethnicity. We find racial and ethnic outcome differences after controlling for potential confounding factors. While geography does not have a causal effect on outcomes for non-Hispanic Caucasian patients, non-Hispanic Black patients experience wide variability in outcomes with estimated 30-day mortality ranging from 5.9% (standard error 2.2%) to 21.6% (4.4%) across U.S. regions.
title A Transfer Learning Causal Approach to Evaluate Racial/Ethnic and Geographic Variation in Outcomes Following Congenital Heart Surgery
topic Methodology
Applications
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.14573