Adjusting for Selection Bias Due to Missing Eligibility Criteria in Emulated Target Trials

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Benz, Luke, Mukherjee, Rajarshi, Wang, Rui, Arterburn, David, Lee, Catherine, Fischer, Heidi, Shortreed, Susan, Haneuse, Sebastien
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866929529127174144
author Benz, Luke
Mukherjee, Rajarshi
Wang, Rui
Arterburn, David
Lee, Catherine
Fischer, Heidi
Shortreed, Susan
Haneuse, Sebastien
author_facet Benz, Luke
Mukherjee, Rajarshi
Wang, Rui
Arterburn, David
Lee, Catherine
Fischer, Heidi
Shortreed, Susan
Haneuse, Sebastien
contents Target trial emulation (TTE) is a popular framework for observational studies based on electronic health records (EHR). A key component of this framework is determining the patient population eligible for inclusion in both a target trial of interest and its observational emulation. Missingness in variables that define eligibility criteria, however, presents a major challenge towards determining the eligible population when emulating a target trial with an observational study. In practice, patients with incomplete data are almost always excluded from analysis despite the possibility of selection bias, which can arise when subjects with observed eligibility data are fundamentally different than excluded subjects. Despite this, to the best of our knowledge, very little work has been done to mitigate this concern. In this paper, we propose a novel conceptual framework to address selection bias in TTE studies, tailored towards time-to-event endpoints, and describe estimation and inferential procedures via inverse probability weighting (IPW). Under an EHR-based simulation infrastructure, developed to reflect the complexity of EHR data, we characterize common settings under which missing eligibility data poses the threat of selection bias and investigate the ability of the proposed methods to address it. Finally, using EHR databases from Kaiser Permanente, we demonstrate the use of our method to evaluate the effect of bariatric surgery on microvascular outcomes among a cohort of severely obese patients with Type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_16830
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Adjusting for Selection Bias Due to Missing Eligibility Criteria in Emulated Target Trials
Benz, Luke
Mukherjee, Rajarshi
Wang, Rui
Arterburn, David
Lee, Catherine
Fischer, Heidi
Shortreed, Susan
Haneuse, Sebastien
Methodology
Applications
Target trial emulation (TTE) is a popular framework for observational studies based on electronic health records (EHR). A key component of this framework is determining the patient population eligible for inclusion in both a target trial of interest and its observational emulation. Missingness in variables that define eligibility criteria, however, presents a major challenge towards determining the eligible population when emulating a target trial with an observational study. In practice, patients with incomplete data are almost always excluded from analysis despite the possibility of selection bias, which can arise when subjects with observed eligibility data are fundamentally different than excluded subjects. Despite this, to the best of our knowledge, very little work has been done to mitigate this concern. In this paper, we propose a novel conceptual framework to address selection bias in TTE studies, tailored towards time-to-event endpoints, and describe estimation and inferential procedures via inverse probability weighting (IPW). Under an EHR-based simulation infrastructure, developed to reflect the complexity of EHR data, we characterize common settings under which missing eligibility data poses the threat of selection bias and investigate the ability of the proposed methods to address it. Finally, using EHR databases from Kaiser Permanente, we demonstrate the use of our method to evaluate the effect of bariatric surgery on microvascular outcomes among a cohort of severely obese patients with Type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
title Adjusting for Selection Bias Due to Missing Eligibility Criteria in Emulated Target Trials
topic Methodology
Applications
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.16830